Gotabaya asks court to stop possible arrest over 2019 attacks

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By Editor_1
Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked a court on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) to prevent his potential arrest over the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 that killed 279 people - Tharaka Basnayaka/Bloomberg/File

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked a court on Tuesday (16) to prevent his potential arrest over the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 that killed 279 people.

A Colombo court imposed a foreign travel ban on Rajapaksa this month, along with two military intelligence officers, pending investigations after he was identified as a “person of interest” in the case.

Rajapaksa’s former intelligence chief, Suresh Sallay, has been detained since February after being accused of orchestrating the 2019 attacks on three hotels and three churches.

A lawyer for Rajapaksa said a petition was lodged with the Court of Appeal over fears that the travel ban, issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate on June 3, was a precursor to the former leader’s arrest.

A hearing date has yet to be fixed.

Forty-five foreigners were among the 279 people killed, and more than 500 were wounded in the 2019 attacks that were blamed on a homegrown jihadist group.

Sallay, a retired major general and former head of military intelligence, was appointed chief of the State Intelligence Service in 2019, immediately after Rajapaksa became president.

British broadcaster Channel 4 reported in 2023 that Sallay was linked to the Islamist bombers and had met them before the attacks.

A whistleblower told the network Sallay had allowed the attack to proceed with the intention of influencing that year’s presidential election in favour of Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa declared his candidacy two days after the bombings and went on to win the November election in a landslide after promising to stamp out Islamist extremism.

However, he was forced to resign in July 2022 after months of street protests over acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

– Agence France-Presse

Editor_1
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