Once among Sri Lanka's most powerful security officials, Pujith Jayasundara and Hemasiri Fernando have now been sentenced to death for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks despite repeated intelligence warnings.

More than seven years after Sri Lanka's devastating Easter Sunday bombings, two of the country's most senior former security officials have been handed the harshest punishment available under the law.

Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were sentenced to death by a special three-judge Permanent Trial-at-Bar on July 31 after being found guilty of criminal negligence and dereliction of duty for failing to act on intelligence warnings that could have prevented the attacks.

The coordinated suicide bombings on April 21, 2019, targeted churches and luxury hotels, killing around 269 people and injuring nearly 500. While both men can appeal before Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, the verdict marks one of the country's most significant accountability measures over the attacks.

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