Easter Sunday bomb trial: Thirteen charges out of 23,270 in indictment read out to accused
The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar yesterday commenced to read out the charges in the indictment to accused including Nawfer Moulavi in the open court in connection with Easter Sunday terror attack that took place on April 21,2019.
Thirteen charges out of the 23,270 charges in the indictment were read out to the accused by Mudliyars D.D Abeygunawardena and Uththara Perera in Sinhala Language while its Tamil translation was read by Mudliyars. S M.Rizwan and T.M.A.N.Raiza to the accused in open court.
Following that, the accused were declared before the Court that they are innocent to the charges.
The case was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench comprising Colombo High Court Judges Damith Thotawatte, Amal Ranaraja and Navaratne Marasinghe.
Additional Solicitor General Haripriya Jayasundara appearing on behalf of the Attorney General informed the Court that since many Muslims are gathered in the court hall, she sought from the court for another date to read out the other charges in the charge sheet to the accused due to their fasting season on these days. Considering the facts, the case was fixed for further reading out of the charges to the accused on May 24 by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar. During the course of the case, the court premises were heavily guarded by the police and the STF and all the accused were brought to the court amid tight security.
The indictments have been filed in connection with eight attacks on Kochchikade St.Anthony’s shrine, Katuwapitiya St.Sebastian’s Church, The Kingsbury Hotel, Shangri-La Colombo, Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Batticaloa Zion Church, Dehiwala Tropical Inn against 25 accused.
The Attorney General filed indictments against Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Nawfar alias Naufar Moulavi, Mohammed Saribu Adam Lebbe (Abu Hadik), Hayathu Mohammed Milhan (Abu Zillah), Mohammed Ibrahim Sadiq Abdullah (Abu Umar), Mohammed Ebrahim Abdul Haq (Abu Fala) , Mohammad Anwar Mohammad Riskan (Abu Tariq), Mohammad Mansoor Mohammad Sanasdeen (Abu Misan), Abdul Manaf Mohammad Piridavus, Mohammad Ramish Mohammad Zarik, Abdul Latif Mohammad Safi (Safi Moulavi / Abu Furqan), Husseinul Rizvi Mohammad Kahir Samir, Mohammad Zawheer Mohammad Hassan (Abu Dawood), Mohammad Iftikhar Mohammad Insaf (Abu Mohammad), Rashid Mohamed Ibrahim, Mohammed Hanifa Zainul Abdin (Abu Hina), Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Haris (Abu Nanjiar), Yassin Bawa Abdul Rauf, Rasik Raza Hussain, Kachchi Mohamed Jasmine, Zainul Abdeen Mohamed Jaseen, Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Rizwan, Meera Saheed Mohamed Nafli (Abu Sana), Mohamed Amin Ayantullah, Mohamed Ansar Deen Hilmi and Mohamed Akram in the High Court. At a previous occasion, court was informed that the seventeenth accused in the case Yassin Bawa Abdul Rauf had passed away on February 5 while being detained at the Magazine prison due to a heart disease.
The indictments were filed against accused under the Prevention of Terrorism Act comprising 23, 270 charges including charges of conspiracy, preparation, aiding and abetting, collection of explosives and weapons, murder and attempted murder.