COLOMBO – A court in Sri Lanka's Colombo on Tuesday delivered the verdict in the Easter Sunday terror attacks trial against 24 defendants.

According to the verdict, delivered by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar, 15 of the 24 were found guilty in connection with the attacks, which took place on April 21, 2019, and killed over 260 people.

Later on Tuesday, the court sentenced the 15 individuals to between 200 and 260 years of rigorous imprisonment. One of the accused was sentenced to 260 years of rigorous imprisonment, four accused to 240 years, five others to 220 years, and the other five to 200 years.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the movable and immovable assets of the convicts with effect from Tuesday.

The remaining nine accused were acquitted and ordered to be released.

The case was filed against the 24 accused over more than 23,000 charges. The charges include conspiracy, aiding and abetting, collecting arms and ammunition, and attempted murder under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The accused also faced allegations over links to the extremist group responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks.

Following the attacks, several investigations were conducted, and the Attorney General subsequently filed indictments against 25 suspects and sought the appointment of a Trial-at-Bar to hear the case. Legal proceedings and preliminary trials related to the attacks officially began on Nov 22, 2021, when a Special Three-Judge Trial-at-Bar opened cases against the suspects as well as negligent officials. However, one of the suspects died before their case reached trial, leaving only 24 to stand trial.

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A total of 2,309 prosecution witnesses testified during the trial.

The recording of evidence for both the prosecution and defense concluded on Aug 24, following daily hearings.