Sri Lanka’s criminal investigators have arrested the country’s former intelligence chief in connection with the wave of 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people and upended the nation’s tourism economic lifeline, police said.
Retired Major-General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of the capital, police said on Wednesday.
list of 3 items
list 1 of 3Sri Lanka’s New War
list 2 of 3Sri Lanka attacks: Bombed church reopens
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“He was arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the Easter Sunday attacks,” an investigating officer told the AFP news agency.
Sallay, who was promoted to State Intelligence Service (SIS) chief in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, had been accused of involvement in the coordinated suicide bombings, a charge he has denied.
Six almost simultaneous suicide bomb attacks struck Easter congregations at three churches and guests at three luxury hotels during breakfast.
The bombings injured more than 500 people, also killed 45 foreign nationals, and dealt a severe blow to the island’s vital tourism sector.
In the aftermath, officials blamed a local armed group for the suicide bombings, but Sallay was also accused of orchestrating the attack.
British broadcaster Channel 4 reported in 2023 that Sallay was linked to the bombers and had met them before the attack.
A whistleblower told the network that he had permitted the attack to proceed with the intention of influencing that year’s presidential election in favour of Rajapaksa.
Two days after the bombings, Rajapaksa declared his candidacy and went on to win the November vote in a landslide after promising to stamp out violence.
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Sallay was promoted to head the SIS, Sri Lanka’s main intelligence agency, following Rajapaksa’s victory, but was dismissed after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidency in 2024, promising prosecutions of those behind the attack.
Other investigations faulted the authorities for failing to act on warnings from an Indian intelligence agency that an attack was imminent.
In 2023, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court said former President Maithripala Sirisena and four other senior officials failed to avert the bombings.
It ordered Sirisena to personally pay 100 million rupees ($273,300) in compensation to relatives of victims who filed the civil case. The then police chief, two senior intelligence officers and the Ministry of Defence secretary were jointly ordered to pay a further 210 million rupees ($574,000).
The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to publish parts of previous inquiries into the bombings that were withheld from the public.
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