Fifteen Islamist plotters behind the 2019 bombings in Sri Lanka have been jailed for at least 200 years each.
The terror attacks – which killed 269 people, including eight Britons – targeted hotels and churches holding Easter Sunday services in Colombo.
A three-judge high court bench imposed sentences ranging from 200 to 260 years for murder and conspiring to commit terrorism. Nine others were acquitted.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed around the courthouse as the final verdict was announced after a trial that lasted more than five years.
The high court also ordered that the properties of those convicted be confiscated under the country's anti-terror law.
A man takes photographs in Colombo's St Anthony's Shrine church in the aftermath of one of the bombings in April 2019 - AFP via Getty Images/Jewel SAMAD
On Easter Sunday in 2019, suicide bombings targeted three luxury hotels in the Sri Lankan capital, as well as two Roman Catholic churches and an evangelical church.
The attackers were linked to National Thowheed Jamath , a regional Islamist extremist network inspired by Islamic State (IS) and whose founder, Zahran Hashim, was among eight suicide bombers. The 269 victims included 45 foreigners.
None of those believed to have directly participated in the attacks is alive, but authorities filed 23,270 charges in 2021 against 25 suspects accused of planning or inspiring the attacks.
All 25 were members of Sri Lanka's Muslim minority. One of the men charged died before the trial concluded.
Catholic nuns carry portraits of some of the victims of the bombings - AFP via Getty Images/Ishara S. KODIKARA
Prosecutors said the defendants were part of a well-planned series of attacks carried out with the intention of killing Christian worshippers and tourists.
They said the court had seen a video recorded the day before the bombings in which attackers, with covered faces, pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , the then leader of IS, and vowed to fight to make Sri Lanka an Islamic nation.
In the courtroom, the accused appeared relaxed, chatting and laughing with each other during breaks. They asked for, and were granted, a prayer break during the lengthy reading of the judgment.
"What I did or didn't do, only God and I know," said one of those convicted, Mohamed Ibrahim Saadiq Abdulla. "In the end all people will be resurrected, and God will judge everyone," he added.
He was given 240 years in prison with hard labour.
One of the convicted defendants is taken to prison after the high court's verdict - AFP via Getty Images/ISHARA S. KODIKARA
Of the remaining defendants, five were sentenced to 200 years, five to 220 years, three to 240 years each and one to 260 years, based on their involvement in conspiring and aiding the attacks.
The convicts have the right to appeal to the country's supreme court.
The case has been politically sensitive, fuelled by allegations that elements within the state security apparatus may have exploited extremist networks for political purposes.
On Feb 25, Sri Lankan police arrested Maj Gen Suresh Sallay, the former head of Sri Lanka's state intelligence services, on suspicion of conspiring with terrorists.
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