The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Colombo High Court (HC) Trial-at-Bar to call the defence following an appeal filed by the Attorney General (AG) challenging the verdict issued by the Colombo HC to acquit former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara from the charges of the failure to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks despite receiving prior information.

The appeal was filed against the verdict issued by a three-Judge HC bench to acquit the duo from the charges of the criminal dereliction of duty and murder through their failure to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks despite receiving information prior to the attacks.

This decision was taken by the five-Judge SC bench led by Justices Preethi Padman Surasena following an extended hearing of the relevant appeal filed by the AG.

The Colombo HC had earlier ordered to acquit and release Fernando and Jayasundara without calling for defence testimonies, following the hearing of a case filed by the AG.

The AG had later filed this appeal with the SC, challenging the Colombo HC’s decision, seeking to invalidate the relevant verdict and for it to be declared unlawful.

Following the hearing of the appeal, the SC bench declared that the HC should have called for the defence during the hearing of the case.