- Displeased with AG’s Dept. contribution to proceedings, calls for separate prosecutor’s office and closer attention
The Catholic Church stated that although the Government has taken satisfactory steps to deliver justice for the terror attacks on the Easter Sunday of 21 April 2019, the overall process has been slow and needs closer attention.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, the Spokesperson for the Colombo Archbishop, Rev. Father Cyril Gamini Fernando said that the current Government's programme including fresh investigations is satisfactory. “During the past six years, nothing has been done. The entire investigation process had been stopped. When this Government came to power, they restarted the investigations. However, the overall process has been slow. Just because it’s slow doesn’t mean that nothing is happening, but, the Government should look into what has gone wrong,” Fr. Fernando pointed out.
He also said that they are not happy about the Attorney General's (AG's) Department's contribution to the relevant proceedings, and added that a separate prosecutor's office should therefore be established to lead the terror attacks-related legal proceedings. "The support given by the AG's Department isn't satisfactory. That's why we're asking for a separate prosecutor's office. That office should be tasked with helping the related investigations as well as implementing the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which looked into the terror attacks such as filing criminal charges against certain individuals," he added.
The Minister of Justice and National Integration, attorney Harshana Nanayakkara was not available for comment.
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches (the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (the Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and the Shangri-La) were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. More than 270 people excluding the bombers were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured.