- Rs. 1 Mn paid by Treasury as State compensation, one respondent pays Rs. 1 Mn
Despite it having been more than five months since the Supreme Court (SC) ordered former President and Defence Minister and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena and several others to pay a compensation sum of Rs.311 million to the Easter Sunday terror attack victims and their families, only Rs.2 million has been so far credited to the relevant fund, The Daily Morning learns.
The Office for Reparations had, as per the order of the SC, established a fund on 19 January 2023, to which the respondents including Sirisena, former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service Director and incumbent Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena, former Chief of National Intelligence, retired DIG Sisira Mendis, and the State, should deposit the relevant sums of compensation.
The Daily Morning queried Office for Reparations Director General S.L.M. Hazeem as to whether any of the respondents have credited the relevant payments of compensation to the fund, to which he said that the fund had received a sum of Rs.2 million as of now. “The General Treasury has deposited Rs.1 million as the State was ordered to pay Rs.1 million as compensation. Another person has deposited another Rs.1 million. That is a portion of the sum in which that person was ordered to pay.”
When queried as to whether he would be able to name the person who has deposited Rs.1 million, he said that the name could not be revealed at this point. “We cannot reveal the name at this point. They are still trying to deposit the relevant sums, and we have to wait until the period of six months is over.”
Delivering the judgment with regard to a total of 12 fundamental rights (FR) petitions filed by several parties, the SC, on 12 January 2023, held that Sirisena, Fernando, Jayasundara, Jayawardena, and Mendis had violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
The SC also ordered them to pay compensation to the victims of the attacks with Sirisena being ordered to pay the highest sum of compensation – Rs.100 million. In addition, Jayasundara and Jayawardena were ordered to pay Rs.75 million each, Fernando Rs.50 million, Mendis Rs.10 million, and the State Rs.1 million.
The Office for Reparations had established the fund with effect from 19 January 2023, at the Bank of Ceylon Rajagiriya Branch, under account number 0090167960, and the title “Easter Attack April 2019 – Victim Fund” to which the relevant respondents are required to credit the compensation payments as ordered by the SC. All respondents including Sirisena have been informed of the account number.