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AFP: Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church on Monday demanded the criminal prosecution of the intelligence chief who was sacked for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
Church spokesman Cyril Gamini Fernando said they welcomed the dismissal days ago of Nilantha Jayawardena, who was head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) when jihadist suicide bombers attacked three churches and three hotels.
“This (sacking) is for the negligence part of it, but we want the authorities to investigate Jayawardena’s role in the attack itself,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo. “We want a criminal prosecution.”
He said evidence presented before several courts and commissions of inquiry indicated that the SIS, under Jayawardena, had attempted to cover up the actions of the jihadists in the lead-up to the April 21 attacks.
“Six years on, we are still looking for answers. We want to know the truth about who was behind the attack,” he said.
Jayawardena, 52, was dismissed Saturday from the police department, where he was the second most senior officer in charge of administration and on track to become the next inspector-general.
Court proceedings have revealed that both military and police intelligence units were closely linked to the home-grown jihadists, and some had even been on the payroll of the intelligence services.
The current ruling party, led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, had while in opposition accused Gotabaya Rajapaksa of orchestrating the attacks to win the 2019 presidential election.
The once powerful Rajapaksa family has denied the allegations.
The attacks occurred despite a warning from an intelligence agency in neighboring India, which alerted Jayawardena 17 days before the devastating bombings.
He was found guilty of ignoring a series of alerts. More than 500 people were also wounded in the bombings, Sri Lanka’s worst jihadist attack on civilians.
Jayawardena was removed from his position as SIS chief in December 2019 but was later promoted to deputy head of the police force, overseeing administration.
However, he was placed on compulsory leave a year ago, pending the disciplinary inquiry, following repeated judicial orders to take action against him.

REUTERS: The Chinese embassy in Singapore refuted claims that an espionage group accused of performing cyberattacks on Singapore’s critical infrastructure was linked to China.
In a Facebook post published over the weekend, the Chinese embassy said such claims were “groundless smears and accusations.”
“The embassy would like to reiterate that China is firmly against and cracks down all forms of cyberattacks in accordance with law. China does not encourage, support or condone hacking activities,” it wrote on Saturday.
Last Friday, a Singapore minister said the espionage group UNC3886 was “going after high value strategic threat targets, vital infrastructure that delivers essential services” but did not give details of the attacks.
The minister did not link the group to China but Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant has described UNC3886 as a “China-nexus espionage group” that has attacked defense, technology and telecommunications organizations in the United States and Asia.
Beijing routinely denies any allegations of cyberespionage, and says it opposes all forms of cyberattacks and is in fact a victim of such threats.
Singapore’s critical infrastructure sectors include energy, water, banking, finance, health care, transport, government, communication, media, as well as security and emergency services, according to the country’s cyber agency.