Accused in the Easter Sunday Terrorist attack case served with indictments

The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar today served indictments on 24 accused including Naufer Mawlawi in connection with the Easter Sunday Terrorist attacks. However, one of the 25 defendants was not produced in court today as he was infected with the coronavirus infection. Accordingly, the Trial-at-Bar bench comprising High Court Judges Damith Thotawatta (President), Amal Ranaraja and  Nawaratne Marasinghe fixed the case for November 23. The indictments are to be handed over to the accused in Tamil language at the next hearing date. The Attorney General had filed indictments against 25 accused including Naufer Mawlawi, Sajid Maulawi, Mohammed Milhan, Sadik Abdullah, Aadam Lebbe alias Gafoor Mama, Mohammed Sanasdeen and Mohammed Rizwan in respect of eight terrorist attacks at St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, St. Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya, the Kingsbury Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel, Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Zion Church in Batticaloa and Tropical lnn in Dehiwela. The Attorney General had filed 23,270 charges against the 25 accused in connection with the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks that took place on April 21, 2019, killing 269 people. The charges were filed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for conspiring to murder, aiding and abetting, collecting arms and ammunition, and attempted murder. The Attorney General had earlier filed indictments against former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former IGP Pujith Jayasundara in connection with their criminal negligence and failure to prevent Easter Sunday Terrorist attacks.