Sri Lanka’s supreme court has ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena and other four top officials to pay compensation for failure to prevent the easter Sunday bombing in 2019 that killed nearly 270 people.
According to the seven-judge bench, Sirisena failed to take measures to prevent the attacks despite solid intelligence warnings two weeks prior, therefore was responsible for negligence.
The former president was ordered to pay 100 million rupees ($273,300) from his funds to family members of victims while the police chief, two top intelligence officials, and the secretary to the ministry of defense at the time were ordered to pay 210 million rupees ($574,000).
According to the court, Sirisena who was defense minister, and commander-in-chief of armed forces failed to call regular meetings of the national security council and had omitted key personnel from the meetings he held.
Three churches and tourists eating breakfast at three top hotels were targeted by Suicide bombers from two groups who had pledged allegiance to the ISIL group. 270 people died and 500 were wounded in the attack.
Sri Lanka Ex-Leader Ordered To Compensate Easter Bombing Victims
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