COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AP) – A Sri Lankan court issued a summons on Friday ordering an ex-president to appear in a case alleging he failed to prevent suicide bomb attacks in 2019 that killed nearly 270 people.
The court ordered ex-president Maithripala Sirisena to appear on October 14 in a complaint filed by a Catholic priest and a worshipper saying his negligence led to the near-simultaneous bomb blasts in three churches and three tourist hotels on Easter Sunday 2019.
The complaint was filed by the Reverend Cyril Gamini, spokesperson for the archdiocese of Colombo, and Jesuraj Ganeshan, who said he lost one leg in a blast at a church where he was attending Easter services. It said Sirisena, who was also defence minister, minister in charge of law and order, and head of the armed forces, failed to take action in response to many prior warnings that a radical group was preaching violence against non-believers.
It also said Sirisena left on a personal trip to Singapore just days before the blasts without naming anyone to oversee his duties while he was away.
