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Two former Sri Lanka officials sentenced to death for negligence in deadly Easter bombings
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Crux Now
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan court on Friday sentenced a former police chief and a former top Defense Ministry official to death after finding them guilty of criminal negligence that allowed Islamic State-inspired bomb attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019, which killed more than 260 people.
A death penalty in Sri Lanka typically means life in prison because the country has had a moratorium on executions since 1976.
Former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara and former Defense Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were convicted and sentenced Friday by the three-member High Court bench.
A parliamentary committee found that police and intelligence officials failed to act on repeated intelligence warnings of the attacks.
Two Sri Lanka-based Islamic militant groups were accused of carrying out the bombings, and none of those believed to have been directly involved are living.