Supreme Court awards record compensation to victims of Easter Sunday attacks

Highest penalty Rs 100 mn against ex-President Sirisena

By A.J.A. Abeynayake

The Supreme Court yesterday (12) ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service Director Nilantha Jayawardena, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis to pay compensation to the victims of Easter Sunday attacks as they had failed to take action to prevent the bombings despite receiving sufficient intelligence.

Former President Maithripala Sirisena was ordered to pay Rs. 100 million to the victims of the attacks, while former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, and former SIS director Nilantha Jayawardena were asked to pay Rs. 75 million rupees. Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Chief of

National Intelligence Sisira Mendis were asked to pay Rs 50 million and Rs. 10 million, respectively. The state was asked to pay a million rupees each to those who died in the attacks, and Rs. 500,000 each to the injured.

The court asked the state to pay compensation within six months and asked the Attorney General to present a report on the compensation paid so far.The court also ordered a disciplinary inquiry against the former SIS head Jayawardena.

Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya said that Sirisena and Jayawardena had not revealed the truth in the affidavits they had presented to the court.The court gave this verdict after considering 13 cases filed against the respondents. The seven-member Supreme Court bench comprised Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, L.T.B. Dehideniya, Murdhu Fernando, S. Thurairaja, A.H.M.D. Nawaz and Shiran Gooneratne.

The bench finalised the examination on 05 October 2022. On 26 September the judges decided to remove Wickremesinghe’s name from the list of respondents because he had been elected President.