Prosecution case in Easter Sunday attack trial concludes

The prosecution's case in the case concerning the Easter Sunday terrorist attack concluded at the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar this afternoon (13).

The proceedings concluded before Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar Judges Navaratne Marasinghe (Presiding Judge), Sujeewa Nissanka, and Ramanathan Kannan. Accordingly, the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar bench decided to commence the defence's trial next Monday (17).

The High Court Trial-at-Bar also ordered to postpone the case until tomorrow (14) to notify the stance of the defense regarding this.

The Attorney General filed 23,270 charges, including the main charge of conspiring the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, against the 24 defendants.

When the case was called today (13), Senior Additional Solicitor General President's Counsel Haripriya Jayasundera, Additional Solicitor General President's Counsel Sudarshana Silva, State Counsel Akila Dalpadado, State Counsel Shakthi Jagodaarachchi, and State Counsel Sajith Bandara appeared in court representing the Attorney General on behalf of the prosecution.

Attorneys-at-Law Dilshika Fernando and Praveen Premathilake, along with Attorney-at-Law Kaneel Maddumage, appeared before court for the 2nd, 7th, 8th, 10th, 15th, 18th, and 19th accused, while Attorney-at-Law Niroshan Siriwardena along with Attorney-at-Law Ravindu Yasas appeared for the 12th and 13th accused.

Attorney-at-Law Adam Hale along with Attorney-at-Law Sanjeeva Ruwan Pathirana appeared for the 20th to 25th accused, and the 1st, 3st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 11th, 14th, and 16th accused conducted their legal proceedings by themselves without legal representation.

Addressing the court on behalf of the prosecution, Senior Additional Solicitor General Haripriya Jayasundera mentioned that this trial started before the High Court Trial-at-Bar on 10 October 2023.

Thereafter, the evidence concluded today (13).

She stated to the Honourable Court that the examination of evidence in this case concludes by calling witnesses up to witness number 2309, who stands as the final witness according to the witness list.

When calculating all total witnesses, the prosecution finished calling evidence from 547 witnesses, and the prosecution case concludes today while marking case exhibits from P.01 to P.2076. She also respectfully mentioned that among these witnesses and marked case exhibits, there remain case exhibits marked through admissions made based on the agreement between the defense and the prosecution.

At that moment, Presiding High Court Judge Navaratne Marasinghe mentioned, while addressing the accused, said that the court is satisfied that sufficient facts have been presented to call for defense statements from all the accused in this case when considering the entire evidence led by the prosecution before court.
Accordingly, deciding to call for the defence statements of all accused and explaining the statutory rights available to them, the court notified that the accused can enter the witness box and provide evidence under oath if necessary.

It was mentioned in court that such evidence will be subject to cross-examination by the prosecution, and the accused can call other witnesses on their behalf if necessary.

It was also noted that if the accused wish, they can make statements from the dock without entering the witness box. It was notified in court that subject to the limitation of such statements not being cross-examined, if they make such statements, those will be considered as evidence before court when preparing the judgment, and the accused also possess a right to remain silent in the dock if they wish. This was also explained to them in the Tamil language through the court's Tamil interpreter Dulalin Thuan Saddam.

It was revealed in court that the court accepted 10 confessions of the accused as evidence in this case, and 2076 case exhibits, including hidden bombs, explosives, swords, firearms, and chemicals used to make bombs, were marked during the trial. It was also revealed in court that a number of Government Analyst's reports, a large volume of DNA reports, medical reports, and post-mortem examination reports were marked.

Among the 23,270 charges against these 24 accused, including Naufer Maulavi, the main charge was filed by the Attorney General as follows.

During the period between 01 November 2017 and 21 April 2019, within the jurisdiction of this court, in the areas of Anuradhapura - Rambewa, Malwana, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Hambantota, Kattankudy - Ollikulam, Palamune, Narammala, Katuwapitiya, Batticaloa, Panadura, Kotahena, Fort, Kollupitiya, and Dehiwala, you (the currently deceased 17th accused Yasim Bawa Abdul Rauf) along with the currently deceased Mohammadu Hasim Jahran alias Mohamed Kasim Jahran alias Mohammadu Kasim Mohamed Jaharan alias Mohamed Kasim Mohamed Zahran alias Abu Moharib alias Abu Ubaida, Mohammadu Kasim Mohammadu Rilwan alias Mohamed Kasim Mohamed Rilwan alias Abu Kithal, Achchi Mohamed Hasthun alias Achichi Mohamadu Mohamadu Hasthun alias Kasthun alias Abu Mohamad, Mohamed Azam Mohamed Mubarak alias Abu Abdullah, Mohade Ibrahim Ilham Mohamed alias Abu Bara, Mohamed Ibrahim Inshaf Ahmed alias Mohamed Ibrahim Inshaf Ahmed, Abdul Latif Jameel Muhammad alias Abdul Latif Jamal Mohamed alias Abu Hamza, Alawdeen Ahamad Muath alias Muath, Muhammad Nasar Muhamadu Ashath alias Mohamed Nazar Mohamed Asad alias Abu Mukhtar (the currently deceased 17th accused Yasity Bawa Abdul Muf alias Yasin Bawa Abdul Rauf), and others unknown to the prosecution, by words spoken or intended to be read, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise; that is, by propagating extremist ideologies or ideologies that cause racist disharmony, ill-will, or hostile feelings between groups of people, ethnicities, or religions, by providing or receiving advanced training, or by providing or receiving weapons training, or by performing some other act or acts, committed the offense of conspiring by agreeing to commit or to abet an offense with a common intention, with or without prior agreement or arrangement, to cause violent acts or to cause religious, ethnic, or racist disharmony, ill-will, or hostile feelings between different groups of people, ethnic, or religious groups, or to perform an act or several acts intended to cause such effects.

As a result of that conspiracy, you exploded bombs in areas including St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo - Katuwapitiya, The Kingsbury Hotel in Fort, Shangri-La Hotel in Fort, Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Kollupitiya, Zion Church in Batticaloa, and New Tropical Inn in Dehiwala, and by performing acts that cause or are intended to cause violent acts or religious, ethnic, or racist disharmony, ill-will, or hostile feelings between different groups of people, ethnic, or religious groups, committed an offense punishable under Section 3(a) to be read with Section 2(1)(h) of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No. 48 of 1979, as amended by Act No. 10 of 1982 and Act No. 22 of 1988.