217th Day of the Main Easter Attack Trial – HC (TAB) 2972/21
Date: 30th June 2026|
Venue: Special Permanent Three-Judge High Court (Trial-at-Bar), 2nd Floor, MCC Building, Adhikarana Mawatha, Colombo 12.
All the accused, except the 17th accused who has passed away and 13th accused who has gone for a clinic, were present today. The 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th, 19th and 20th to 25th accused were represented and the others appeared in person. PW 1088, 1275, 1476, 1378, 2222, 2223 and 2299 were present before the court
PW 1378 is a head nurse who served in the ward 79 of the General Hospital, Colombo in 2019. She gave evidence of a person called M. I. Shaheed who was admitted said to have injuries due to an explosion of a gas cylinder, in the eye and hands. She was unable to identify the patient or his guardian. The 5th accused cross-examined the witness.
PW 2222 is a commissioner of Government Translators’ Service and gave evidence as to five translations done in relation to 5 CDs sent to the CID. The cover letters and the translations were marked. The witness was not cross-examined.
PW 1276 is one of the translators in Government Translators’ Service. She gave evidence as to her qualifications and expertise and the CD which was translated by her was marked. However, the court raised the issue of admissibility of the evidence since it seems as a communication between the spouses which is privileged. The 9th accused also objected under S. 122 of the Evidence Ordinance. The court directed the prosecution to have submission on the available jurisprudence on this regard, to make the ruling in the morning.
The court delivered the order of the voir dire inquiry of the 18th accused and held that the 18th accused had made a voluntary statement under S.16(1) of the PTA. The court allowed the statement to be marked as P807. The summons was issued for PW 2119 to be present before the court tomorrow afternoon.
All the witnesses were advised to be present before the court tomorrow.
Next date and time: 2026/07/01 at 10 a.m. for further Trial.
