Sri Lanka’s former spy chief arrested for alleged conspiracy in the 2019 Easter attacks that killed 279 people, reviving scrutiny of the coordinated bombings.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief has been arrested over his alleged role in the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings.
Retired Major-General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn on Wednesday in a suburb of the capital, police confirmed.
“He was arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the Easter Sunday attacks,” an investigating officer told AFP.
Sallay had led the State Intelligence Service (SIS) after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president in 2019. He has consistently denied involvement in the coordinated attacks, which killed 279 people and wounded more than 500.
The arrest follows longstanding allegations, including a 2023 report by Britain’s Channel 4, which linked Sallay to the Islamist bombers.
The broadcaster reported that Sallay had met the attackers prior to the bombings. A whistleblower alleged he permitted the attack to proceed to influence the presidential election in favour of Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa declared his candidacy two days after the bombings. He won the November 2019 vote in a landslide after promising to stamp out Islamist extremism.
Sallay was promoted to head the SIS following that victory but was dismissed in 2024 after a new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, took office pledging prosecutions.
Officials initially blamed a local jihadist group for the bombings on three churches and three hotels. Other investigations faulted authorities for ignoring warnings from Indian intelligence about an imminent attack.
The bombings also killed 45 foreigners and crippled the island’s lucrative tourism industry.
In a subsequent civil case, the Supreme Court fined then-President Maithripala Sirisena and four senior officials more than USD 1.03 million for failing to prevent the attacks.
The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to publish withheld parts of previous inquiries into the bombings.
