Ex. Prez Sirisena highest contributor
Over 310 mn had been paid to five categories of the 2019 Easter Sunday victims according to a detailed report submitted by the Office of Reparations to the Supreme Court (SC) when the relevant Fundamental Rights cases were mentioned before Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, PC, Justice S. Thurairajah PC, and Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz recently.
His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, the 57th Respondent in the SC FR 195/2019, was represented by Shammil J. Perera, PC, and Duthika Perera at these proceedings on the instructions of Gamini Senanayake.
During the proceedings, the Office for Reparations presented a detailed report to all parties setting out the details of payments made to the victims through the Fund which received altogether Rs. 311 mn as compensation paid by the respondents in these Fundamental Rights cases.
Former President Maithripala Sirisena paid the highest compensation amounting to Rs 100 mn to the Fund.
The SC on January 12, 2023 declared that former President Sirisena, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, former National Intelligence Chief Senior DIG (retired) Sisira Mendis and former Chief of State Intelligence Service SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena had violated the fundamental rights of the people by failing to take action to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings in spite of having prior information of the impending attack.
The SC ordered Sirisena to pay Rs. 100 million in compensation to the petitioners, while Pujith Jayasundara and Nilantha Jayawardena were each ordered to pay Rs. 75 million; Hemasiri Fernando was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million and Sisira Mendis was ordered to pay Rs. 10 million from their personal funds. That order was delivered by a seven-member Supreme Court Judge bench with regard to 12 petitions filed by various parties stating that their fundamental rights had been violated by negligence and failure to prevent the coordinated terrorist attacks on 21 April, 2019.
Legal sources said that Rs 310 mn was the highest amount of compensation ever paid in a Fundamental Rights case here.
Accordingly, the Easter Attack 2019 Victim Fund made the relevant payments to the following categories of victims (1) Next of kin of deceased (2) Medical support for injured victims (3) Secondary School education support of students (4) Tertiary education support of students and Support for elders.
The SC was told by May 20, 2025 a total amount of Rs. 310,418,586.20/- had been disbursed to all the victims (99.78% of total funds collected). According to the Office of reparations, altogether 661 beneficiaries had been paid by the Fund.
Subsequent to deducting all bank charges, Rs. 581,413.80/- remained in the Fund, the SC was told.
On behalf of His Eminence the Archbishop of Colombo, Shammil J. Perera extend the sincere appreciation and the deep sense of gratitude of the Church towards their Lordships of the Supreme Court in delivering a landmark judgment and thereafter taking the requisite steps to ensure that these funds had been properly disbursed to all of the victims of these attacks. The counsel for the Cardinal also extended the Church’s profound sense of appreciation to the Attorney General’s Department and the Office for Reparation in aiding in the exercise of distributing these payments to the deserving victims. Thereby the proceedings of these Fundamental Rights cases were terminated, sources said. (SF)