Lawyers representing the Catholic Church are currently discussing the future course of action with regard to the non-settlement of the total sums of compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019 and their families by the relevant respondents including former President and Defence Minister and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena, The Daily Morning learns.
The Office for Reparations maintained the fund to which the respondents were required to deposit the relevant sums of compensation by 12 July, as ordered by the Supreme Court (SC), and it was only former Chief of National Intelligence (CNI), retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Sisira Mendis who had settled the total sum of compensation of Rs. 10 million he was ordered to pay along with the Government and State which paid Rs. 1 million.
As several Catholic priests are among the petitioners who had filed the fundamental rights (FR) applications considering which the SC ordered the respondents to pay the compensation sums, The Daily Morning queried Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) National Director of Communications Father Jude Chrishantha Fernando regarding their future course of action. He replied: “This is something that has to be dealt with by our lawyers, and they are already discussing the matter. They will also discuss with Colombo Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and make the relevant and necessary applications to the SC.”
Sirisena, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service Director and incumbent Senior DIG – Administration Nilantha Jayawardena, former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, Mendis, and the Government and State were ordered to pay sums of compensation, ranging from Rs. 1 million to Rs. 100 million by 12 July by the SC. While the total sum of compensation that the fund should have received was Rs. 311 million, it had received only about Rs. 34 million as of 12 July.
Meanwhile, emphasising that a judgement delivered by the SC must be complied with by the relevant respondents, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which is also among the petitioners, recently stated that the non-settlement of the total sums of compensation by the relevant respondents could be argued as an act of omission that constitutes being in contempt of court.