Sri Lankan court to rule on Easter bombings case involving Naufer Moulavi and 23 others

A Sri Lankan court is set to deliver verdicts in the long-running case over the 2019 Easter bombings, which killed 270 people and injured more than 500. Naufer Moulavi, who prosecutors say masterminded the attacks, is among 24 people due to hear the outcome. The case concerns the coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, one of the deadliest attacks in Sri Lanka's modern history.

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The court is hearing allegations against Moulavi and 23 others over their roles in planning and carrying out the attacks. Prosecutors have said Moulavi was the main organiser and submitted what they described as a voluntary confession, which the court accepted. He later told the three-judge bench that he had not been shown what he was signing and denied the allegations.

The case has involved more than 23,000 charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of firearms. The prosecution has also relied on extensive evidence, including testimony from more than 2,300 people and 2,076 items of evidence such as explosives, swords and firearms. The attacks targeted several locations, including churches holding Easter mass and three luxury hotels.

In the aftermath, Sri Lankan authorities acknowledged a major intelligence lapse, and parliament heard that a warning from India had not been properly shared with the authorities. The verdict is significant because the Easter bombings remain a defining security and accountability issue in Sri Lanka. The attacks took place after the end of the country's civil war in 2009 and exposed serious failures in intelligence coordination and state protection.

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Families of victims have held regular demonstrations for years demanding justice, and the case has become a test of how far the legal system can go in assigning responsibility for one of the country's worst mass-casualty attacks. The proceedings also sit alongside other accountability efforts linked to the bombings. In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay compensation to victims after finding him responsible for national security failures.

Last month, two former senior officials were sentenced to death for criminal negligence connected to the attacks, although death sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment in Sri Lanka because of a long-standing moratorium on executions. What remains unclear is how the court will rule on each of the accused and whether the verdicts will lead to further legal or political consequences. A separate investigation into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is also under way, with allegations that he orchestrated the bombings with Islamist extremists.

The case continues to draw attention because it combines questions of criminal responsibility, intelligence failures and the wider demand from victims' families for accountability.

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