COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president has cleared investigators to detain the country’s former intelligence chief for up to three months of questioning over his alleged role in the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people, police said Saturday.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake signed an order under the tough Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to hold retired army major general Suresh Sallay for 90 days for questioning by detectives.
Criminal investigators arrested Sallay on Wednesday, making him the most high-profile official netted in the long-running investigation into the bombings, which wounded about 500 people.
Forty-five foreigners were among those killed.
Nine suicide bombers carried out the coordinated attacks on April 21, 2019, targeting two Roman Catholic churches, an evangelical Protestant church and three luxury hotels.
“The President signed the DO (detention order) last night to keep Sallay in custody for 90 days after the initial three-day period he was held,” a police spokesman said.
The PTA allows police to hold suspects for long periods without charge or judicial review. Suspects held under the PTA cannot be released on bail by the courts.
Opposition parties have condemned Sallay’s arrest, calling it a political witch-hunt.
But Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church, which has led a campaign demanding justice for the victims, welcomed the arrest and said police must be allowed to continue their investigation without political interference.
The church had earlier accused former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa of sabotaging police investigations into the bombings after coming to power on the back of them.
Two days after the attacks, Rajapaksa, a retired army officer, declared his candidacy and went on to win the November election in a landslide after promising to stamp out Islamist extremism.