On Tuesday, November 14, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe disclosed the status of the compensation payments to the victims of the Easter Sunday bombs by the parties responding to the fundamental rights (FR) applications filed in relation to the 2019 atrocity.
The Office for Reparations has received little more than Rs. 36 million of the entire money that is owed to the victims as compensation in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decisions, according to Minister Rajapakshe.
During today’s parliamentary session, the minister stated that, of the Rs. 100 million he was directed to pay, former President Sirisena had deposited Rs. 15 million.
The Office for Reparations has received the following sums from the other petition respondents, who filed the cases due to their inaction in preventing the Easter Sunday attacks despite having access to sufficient intelligence: Rs 1.725 million from former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara; Rs 4.1 million from former Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS) DIG Nilantha Jayawardena; and Rs 5 million from former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando.
Notably, the government has finished paying the Office for Reparations Rs. 1 million, and former head of national intelligence Sisira Mendis has paid the Rs. 10 million in reparations that he was required to pay.
In addition, the Justice Minister stated that the Office for Reparations has established a procedure to make the necessary payments and presented it to the court; the victims can only get compensation once the Office for Reparations has received all of the payments.
The Supreme Court ordered the former President, Defence Secretary, IGP, Chief of SIS, Chief of National Intelligence, and others to compensate the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks early in 2023 for their failure to act to prevent the attacks despite having sufficient intelligence information. The court found that these individuals had violated the petitioners’ Fundamental Rights.
In light of this, the Supreme Court ordered that former President Sirisena compensate the petitioners with Rs. 100 million. Additionally, former Defence Secretary Fernando was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million, and former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis, Rs. 10 million from their personal funds. Former IGP Jayasundara and the former Chief of SIS Jayawardena were each ordered to pay Rs. 75 million.
Furthermore, the verdict stipulated that the government ought to compensate the victims with an amount of Rs. 01 million.
