Case against 25 accused in Easter attacks fixed for Jan. 12

The case against Naufer Mawlawi and 24 other accused in the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks will be taken up again before Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar on January 12, 2022.

The case was called before High Court Judges Damith Thotawatta, Amal Ranaraja and Nawarathna Marasinghe earlier today.

The defendants were produced before the court by prison officials under tightened security.

Last month, the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar served charges on the accused in the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The Chief Justice had appointed High Court Judges Damith Thotawatte, Amal Ranaraja and Navaratne Marasinghe to the three-member bench to hear the cases filed against the suspects in connection with the suicide bombings in which over 270 people, including foreign nationals, were killed.

Colombo High Court Judge Damith Thotawatte chairs the bench. The setting up of the special Trial-at-Bar at the Colombo High Court came after a request from Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam to Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

Police had previously filed 23,270 charges against 25 suspects in the case including Naufer Mawlawi, Sajid Mailavi, Mohamed Milhan, Sadiq Abdullah, Aadam Lebbe, Mohamed Sanasdeen and Mohamed Rizvan.

The charges filed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act include conspiring to murder, aiding and abetting, collecting arms and ammunition, and attempted murder.

Nine suicide bombers, belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS, carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing over 270 people and injuring more than 500 people on April 21, 2019.