by Buddhika Samaraweera in The Daily Morning, Sept 25, 2023
The Catholic Church yesterday (24) stated that they do not intend to initiate fresh legal action based on the allegations made by the British-based broadcaster Channel 4 regarding the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019 in a recent documentary.
However, the Church stated that they are resolute in their pursuit of a fresh and transparent investigation into the terror attacks which claimed the lives of 269 persons, and injured hundreds more.
Channel 4 recently broadcast the controversial documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings, which contained startling accusations pertaining to the terror attacks on 21 April, 2019. Citing their whistleblowers, the documentary claimed that the terror attacks had been carried out with the alleged facilitation of Government officials to pave the way for the Rajapaksas, particularly former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to come to power. The Ministry of Defence, the Head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa have denied the allegations.
The Daily Morning queried the Media Spokesman for the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando as to whether the Church would initiate any legal action based on the revelations made by Channel 4, and he said that they did not intend to do so as the relevant documentary only contained allegations which had no legal basis. “We do not wish to initiate legal action based on this documentary. It contains only allegations and they do not have a legal basis. What we need is a fresh investigation into this overall matter. Such an investigation should cover all areas such as the terror attacks, the individuals or parties that carried out and aided it, the incidents that followed the terror attacks, the shortcomings in the investigations that have been carried out thus far, and the allegations levelled by Channel 4.”
On 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday, three churches (St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and Shangri-La) were targeted in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings. Shortly after, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 sustained injuries.
https://www.themorning.lk/articles/DP72CndbC2NUU4v14a2c
