Supreme Court orders hearing of defense in acquittals of Ex-IGP and Defense Secretary

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has ordered the Colombo High Court to call for the defense following an appeal filed by the Attorney General (AG).

The appeal challenged the High Court’s previous decision to acquit former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara of charges related to their failure to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, despite having received prior intelligence.

The High Court had originally acquitted Fernando and Jayasundara without summoning defense testimonies, citing insufficient evidence.

The Attorney General argued that this verdict was legally flawed and filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, seeking to have the High Court’s ruling overturned.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Preethi Padman Surasena, conducted an extensive hearing of the case and ruled that the High Court should have called for the defense during the proceedings.