Colombo, Mar 1 (PTI) A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday rejected former president Maithripala Sirisena's plea to free him from all cases related to the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attack that killed nearly 270 people.

Some 108 people, the kin of the victims of the attack, had filed cases against then President Sirisena for neglecting advance intelligence warnings on the attack that proved costly for the island nation's economy primarily dependent on tourism.

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Nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500.

The Colombo Appellate High Court on Wednesday rejected Sirisena's petition to free him from all cases related to the 2019 Easter attack. He was pleading that he be personally released from all cases by making the state the respondent.

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In January, a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court ordered 71-year-old Sirisena to pay SLRs 100 million as compensation to victims of the 2019 Easter attack for his negligence in preventing the country's one of the worst terror strikes despite having credible information of an imminent attack.

The bench had ruled that the respondents named in the petitions for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks had violated the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners. It said top officials failed to act on the detailed intelligence information shared by India to avert the deadly suicide blasts.

Sirisena was given six months' time to pay or face contempt of court charges. Later, he publicly said he was collecting money from his well-wishers to pay the amount ordered by the apex court.

The court had also ordered former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former state intelligence services chief Nilantha Jayawardene to pay a compensation of SLRs. 75 million each, former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando to pay a compensation of SLRs. 50 million and former national intelligence service chief Sisira Mendis to pay a compensation of SLRs. 10 million.

They were ordered to pay from their personal funds to the victim fund maintained by the office of reparations.

The attack stirred a political storm as then President Sirisena and then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were blamed for their inability to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence being made available.

A presidential panel of inquiry appointed by Sirisena after the attacks ironically found the then-president guilty of his failure to prevent the attacks.

Sirisena, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge in the case filed after the panel's findings.

The head of the local Catholic Church, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, continued to express his dissatisfaction over the probe in the matter, claiming that the investigation was a cover-up.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)