Easter Sunday blasts case: Sri Lankan court sentences each convict to 220 years in prison; all 15 to appeal against verdict

Fifteen people, sentenced to over 200 years each in prison by a Sri Lankan court for their involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, will appeal their record jail sentences, a defence lawyer said on Wednesday (September 23, 2026). This comes a day after the court found 15 of the 24 accused guilty of involvement in the attacks which killed 279 people.

Nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat, linked to ISIS, carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500.

The fifteen accused have been sentenced to 220 years of rigorous imprisonment each by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar. The court also ordered the confiscation of their movable and immovable property by the State.