Easter attack suspects accuse investigators of physical abuse and coerced confessions

Multiple defendants on trial for the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings told the Colombo High Court that police investigators subjected them to torture and planted false evidence to extract signatures on prepared confessions.

The allegations were raised on Tuesday (18) before a three-judge bench consisting of High Court Judges Navaratne Marasinghe, Ramanathan Kannan, and Sujeeva Nishshanka.

The trial panel is currently receiving oral statements from 24 individuals who face more than 23,000 combined charges in connection with the synchronized attacks that devastated the country seven years ago.

Focusing on the forensic claims against him, seventh defendant Mohamed Mansoor Mohamed Sanasdeen, a sweetmeats vendor, stated that his arrest relied entirely on a fingerprint retrieved from adhesive tape at a Panadura safehouse.

He informed the court that patrons frequently used tape at his business to pack goods and maintained that he had never set foot inside the Panadura site.

Broadening the complaints against the investigating officers, defendants including Abdul Manaf Mohamed Firdous and Rashid Mohamed Ibrahim backed claims of physical mistreatment while in custody.

They alleged that Criminal Investigation Department officers warned them that their female relatives would be detained if they refused to sign pre printed confession documents.

Addressing the bench for almost two hours, second defendant Mohammadu Adam Lebbe repudiated all counts connecting him to ringleader Zahran Hashim.

He described being suspended in handcuffs and beaten by investigators, asserting that he never attended radicalisation lectures in Nuwara Eliya or aided suicide bombers.

Highlighting the tragedy that struck his own household, he noted that his daughter and grandchildren lost their lives in the explosion at the Sainthamaruthu safehouse.

He requested a full acquittal, adding that he would have chosen to perish alongside his family members had he been involved in any suicide bombing plot.

The widespread allegations of severe custodial abuse and compromised forensic integrity cast a troubling shadow over the accountability mechanisms surrounding one of the most devastating security failures in modern Sri Lankan history.