(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – A three-judge bench of the Colombo High Court trial-at-bar Thursday ordered to hear the case against 25 suspects, including Naufer Moulavi, on charges including conspiracy to commit, aiding and abetting the suicide bombing on Easter Sunday, on January 04 and 05, 2023.
A three-judge bench comprising judges Damith Thotawatte, Amal Ranaraja and Navaratne Marasinghe informed that the indictments against the defendants will be read before the court on that day.
The court also told to issue summons to Professor Rohan Gunaratne and Head of State Intelligence Service Mr. Suresh Saleh to appear before the court to testify in the case.
The twenty-five suspects were presented to the court by the prison authority amid tight security.
The ‘pre-trial conference’ of the case was concluded yesterday.
Additional Solicitor General Mrs. Haripriya Jayasundara, who appeared for the prosecution, informed that since there are nearly 25,000 indictments in this case and it will take a lot of time to read the indictments to the defendants in open court, and the prosecution expects to present the indictments in a summarized form. She also mentioned that she hopes to do it without prejudice to the accused while saving the court’s time.
The bench allowed the prosecution to summarize the charges.
The bench also mentioned that an order will be issued in the next day after considering the written submissions by both the parties regarding the granting of bail to the suspects.
The case has been filed by the Attorney General against 25 accused including Naufar Moulavi, Sajeed Moulavi, Mohammad Milhan, Sadiq Abdullah, Adam Lebbe, Alias Gouper Uncle, Mohammad Sanas Deen, and Mohammad Rizwan on 23,270 charges including conspiracy to carry out terrorist attack aiding and abetting the attack on Easter Sunday,
