Despite it having been more than two months since the Supreme Court (SC) ordered former President and Defence Minister and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian, Maithripala Sirisena and several others to pay compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks and their families, none of the respondents have credited the relevant sums to the particular Fund, The Daily Morning learned.
The Office for Reparations had, as ordered by the SC, established the Fund to which the respondents including Sirisena, former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service Director and incumbent Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena and former Chief of National Intelligence, retired DIG Sisira Mendis should deposit the relevant payments of compensation, with effect from 19 January 2023.
When queried by The Daily Morning as to whether any of the respondents had credited the relevant payments of compensation to the Fund, the Director General of the Office for Reparations, S.L.M. Hazeem said that the Fund had not received any sum of compensation.
The Office for Reparations stated earlier that a Fund had been established with effect from 19 January, 2023 at the Bank of Ceylon (BOC), Rajagiriya branch, under the account number 0090167960, and the title “Easter attack April, 2019 – Victim fund” to which the relevant respondents should credit the compensation payments in the sums as ordered by the SC. All respondents including Sirisena had been informed of the account number.
Delivering the judgement with regard to a total of 12 Fundamental Rights petitions filed by several parties, the SC, on 12 January 2023, held that Sirisena, Fernando, Jayasundara, Jayawardena and Mendis had violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks. The SC also ordered them to pay compensation to the victims of the attacks with Sirisena being ordered to pay the highest sum of compensation of Rs. 100 million. In addition, Jayasundara and Jayawardena were ordered to pay Rs. 75 million each, Fernando Rs. 50 million and Mendis Rs. 10 million. The State was ordered to pay Rs. 1 million. The compensation amounts were ordered to be paid within six months of the verdict.