More than half of Rs. 100 million compensation already paid - Maithripala’s lawyers tell SC
July 15, 2024 10:55 am
Former President Maithripala Sirisena’s lawyers have informed the Supreme Court that Rs. 58 million of the compensation of Rs. 100 million imposed on the former President, for failure to prevent the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, has already been paid.
Meanwhile, the former President has also requested the court through his lawyers to extend the payment period for the remaining sum by six years.
On July 11, 2023, the former President completed paying Rs. 15 million as part of the compensation he was ordered to pay to the victims and filed a motion requesting that he be allowed to pay the remaining sum in 10 installments of Rs. 8.5 million from 30 June 2024 to 20 June 2033.
In a motion filed through his lawyers, the former President explained that he receives a pension of Rs. 97,500 as the former President, alongside a sum of Rs. 54,285 for his services as a Member of Parliament, thus, he requested that he be granted the aforementioned time period to pay the remainder of the ordered sum of Rs. 100 million.
On 12 January 2023, the Supreme Court found that former President Sirisena, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara, former National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis and former Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS) Nilantha Jayawardena have violated the fundamental rights of the people by failing to take action to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings despite receiving sufficient intelligence information.
Thus, in its verdict, the Supreme Court bench had ordered Sirisena to pay Rs. 100 million in compensation to the petitioners, while Pujith Jayasundara and Nilantha Jayawardena were each ordered to pay Rs. 75 million, Hemasiri Fernando was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million and Sisira Mendis was ordered to pay Rs. 10 million from their personal money.
The relevant order was delivered by a seven-member Supreme Court Judge bench, with regard to 12 petitions filed by various parties stating that their fundamental rights were violated by negligence and failure to prevent the coordinated terrorist attacks on April 21, 2019.
