Cardinal Ranjith hails the Supreme Court ruling on the 2019 Easter Sunday bombing

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, welcomed the Supreme Court verdict penalizing former Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, and the former police, intelligence, and defence chiefs for failing to act to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, despite receiving intelligence information.

Cardinal Ranjith stated that “This is a beginning, and it is a very happy beginning, and we are very happy that the learned judges gave us such hope for a future for this country, which is a much-needed hope for the development of our nation.”

The court ruling was issued on January 12 following a lawsuit filed by 13 families of the victims and local Church leaders.

There were seven-judge bench ruled that Sirisena had been negligent in not taking measures to thwart the attack, despite solid intelligence warnings two weeks earlier.

The Cardinal added that, “basing on this verdict, we expect this case to be taken forward and justice for the victims will only happen when the entire truth comes out. It is just a milestone in that journey.”

Sri Lankan Catholic Church has severely criticized the government’s handling of the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings and petitioned the United Nations for an international probe.

It is the first time that a head of state in Sri Lanka has been held responsible for failing to prevent a terror attack.