Sri Lanka hands death sentence to ex-police chief over Easter bombings

Hemasiri Fernando (left); Pujith Jayasundara (right). Pic/PTI

A Sri Lankan court on Saturday sentenced former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former top Defense Ministry official Hemasiri Fernando to death after finding them guilty of criminal negligence that allowed Islamic State-inspired bomb attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019, which killed more than 260 people.

Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake supports maintaining the moratorium.

The near-simultaneous bombings in 2019 were carried out at three tourist hotels and three churches - two of them Catholic and one Protestant - and killed 42 foreigners.

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