Sri Lankan court orders ex-leader to pay victims of bombings

KIFI

Published January 12, 2023 4:54 AM

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ruled that inaction by the country’s former president and four others led to Easter Sunday bomb attacks in 2019 that killed nearly 270 people and ordered them to pay compensation for violating the basic rights of the victims and their families. The court told former President Maithripala Sirisena to pay $273,000 from his personal funds. It also ordered the police chief, two top intelligence officials and the secretary to the ministry of defense at the time to pay a total of $574,000. A breakdown in communication caused by a rift between Sirisena and the then prime minister was blamed for the failure of authorities to act on foreign intelligence received prior to the attacks.

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