PHU leader Udaya Gammanpila has challenged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's recent claim that the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks trial could conclude within a month, citing the case's complexity and the extensive evidence already presented.
Opposition politician Udaya Gammanpila has publicly questioned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's assertion that the High Court Trial-at-Bar hearing the Easter Sunday attacks case will be completed within one month. Speaking at a press conference on August 17, Gammanpila, a former parliamentarian and attorney-at-law, called for the President to explain the basis for this prediction, which was made during a meeting with the Bar Association of Sri Lanka earlier this month.
Gammanpila expressed skepticism about the feasibility of concluding proceedings against 24 accused defendants in such a timeframe. He highlighted that the prosecution alone required 547 days spread across five years to present its case, during which approximately 1,500 witnesses testified and 2,076 pieces of evidence were submitted to the court.
The trial has involved substantial documentation, with 23,270 indictments filed against the defendants. The prosecution presented ten confessions, though one given by accused Mohamed Firdauz was deemed inadmissible due to concerns about its voluntary nature. The court determined the remaining nine confessions were voluntarily given and permitted their admission.
Gammanpila also raised concerns about President Dissanayake's decision to delay appointments to superior courts, suggesting it was intended to prevent the trial judges—Nawaratne Marasinghe, Sujeewa Nissanka, and Ramanathan Kannan—from being removed through promotion before the case concludes. He argued that the remaining proceedings, including defense arguments and deliberations, would require considerably more time than the President's estimate.
