- Reparations Office informs of account details of respondents including Sirisena
- Probe ongoing into irregularities in past compensation payments
The Office for Reparations has, as ordered by the Supreme Court (SC), established the “Victim Fund” to which respondents, including former President and Defence Minister and incumbent Opposition MP Maithripala Sirisena, should deposit the relevant payments of Rs. 311 million as compensation ordered by the SC to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019 and their families.
In a statement published on its official website, the Office for Reparations stated that the Victim Fund had been established with effect from 19 January 2023 onwards at the Bank of Ceylon, Rajagiriya Branch, under the account number 0090167960, and account name “Easter Attack April 2019 – Victim Fund”. The Office for Reparations stated that respondents including Sirisena have been advised of the account number.
Following the direction of the SC to invite any benefactors and donors to contribute towards the Victim Fund by way of notification through the media, the Office for Reparations stated that a notice calling for persons to contribute to the fund will be published in the media within the coming weeks in all three languages.
As the SC had ordered the Office for Reparations to investigate the alleged underpayment and non-payment of compensation to the victims of the terror attacks and their families, it stated that investigations regarding the non-payment and underpayment of compensation are ongoing and involve the re-examination of every payment made to victims and their families in compliance with the scheme adopted at the time.
A total of 12 fundamental rights petitions had been filed by various parties alleging that fundamental human rights have been violated by the negligence and failure of the respondents including Sirisena to prevent the terror attacks on 21 April 2019.
The SC, which held that Sirisena, former Defence Ministry Secretary 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 have violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks, ordered that compensation be paid to the victims of the attacks, with Sirisena ordered to pay the highest sum of compensation amounting to Rs. 100 million while Jayasundara and Jayawardena were ordered to pay Rs. 75 million each; Fernando was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million and Mendis was ordered to pay Rs. 10 million in compensation, all out of their personal funds. The State was also ordered to pay Rs. 1 million in compensation to the victims.