Sri Lanka Convicts 15 Over the 2019 Easter Bombings: What the Trial Settled

Sri Lanka's High Court has convicted 15 men for plotting the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 270 people in 2019.

The ruling, reported on 22 September 2026, concerned 24 accused. Nine other men were acquitted, or found not guilty, according to BBC. The split verdict closes the main criminal trial more than seven years after the attacks. Related accountability cases are still active.

The attacks took place on 21 April 2019. Coordinated blasts struck three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. More than 500 people were injured. Forty-five foreigners were among those killed. All of the bombers died in the blasts.

Prosecutors said Naufer Moulavi masterminded the bombings. He was among those convicted. The accused faced more than 23,000 offences, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, which means planning an attack together, and possessing firearms.

The trial was large by Sri Lankan standards. It began in November 2021 with 25 men accused of plotting the bombings, according to Reuters. By verdict, 24 defendants remained before the court. More than 2,300 people gave evidence for the prosecution. The prosecution presented 2,076 pieces of evidence, including explosives, swords and firearms.

The convictions cover those accused of planning and facilitating the operation, not the bombers themselves, who died. Investigators treated the case as a conspiracy with logistical, ideological and material support networks, like separate crews supplying plans, ideas and weapons. Prosecutors linked the high number of charges and the seized weapons and explosives to that network model.

Separate cases have focused on officials. In 2023, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay compensation to victims after finding him responsible for national security failures leading to the attacks. In February 2026, the Criminal Investigation Department arrested the country's former intelligence chief in connection with the bombings, according to Reuters. On 1 August 2026, two former officials were sentenced to death for failing to stop the bombings, according to Al Jazeera.

The broader context here is a two-track form of accountability. One track uses criminal and counterterrorism law against non-state planners and facilitators. The other uses doctrines of command responsibility and negligence against officials. Colombo has now produced outcomes on both tracks within weeks of each other. That sequencing raises close questions about how courts divide culpability between perpetrators and a security apparatus that had prior warnings.

Looking at what this means for Sri Lanka, the immediate questions are procedural and political. Sentencing for the 15 convicted men is still to follow, and acquittals can be appealed. The February arrest and the August death sentences indicate investigators and prosecutors continue to pursue links up the chain of authority. For diplomats and risk analysts, the test is whether these verdicts build a consistent legal narrative about planning, warning and prevention, or whether parallel judgments produce competing accounts that complicate reconciliation and compensation efforts.