Theme: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said about 40 Iranian sailors aboard US-sanctioned oil tankers anchored just outside the country's territorial waters received urgent medical treatment on Saturday (October 24, 2026). According to AP, Sri Lanka answered a distress call and provided medical help to the 40 sailors before repatriating them to Tehran, a spokesperson said on Sunday. “We coordinated the transfer alone as per our humanitarian obligations. The Iranian Embassy bore all the expenses,” the ministry said, according to The Hindu.

Former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa was arrested over suspected misuse of donations to the Siriliya Saviya foundation meant for a children’s hospital, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a text republished by The Hindu. Investigators told a court that the scanner had already been donated by the Chinese government, but that the charity kept soliciting donations and misused the funds.

Sri Lanka’s High Court on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, sentenced the 15 men convicted over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings to 200 years in prison each and ordered their property confiscated, according to a dispatch from the Associated Press (AP) published by the Hindustan Times. The three-judge panel had convicted 14 of the 24 defendants of direct involvement and found a 15th guilty on some of the charges, acquitting the other nine. The bombings of April 21, 2019, struck three churches and three luxury hotels and killed more than 260 people, including 42 foreigners, according to AP, while the BBC puts the toll at 270 dead and more than 500 wounded. The trial ran on 23,270 charges and lasted nearly five years.

Sri Lanka’s High Court convicted 14 of the 24 defendants tried for direct involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and found a 15th guilty on some of the charges while acquitting nine others, according to Al Jazeera and The Hindu. The convictions include murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and the possession of firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; the three-judge bench said sentencing would be delivered later on Tuesday. Six near-simultaneous bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, 45 of them foreign nationals — the deadliest attack in the country since the end of its civil war in 2009. The verdict runs alongside the investigation into Suresh Sallay, the former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), arrested in February 2026 on accusations of orchestrating the attacks, which he denies.

Ratings agency Fitch upgraded Sri Lanka’s long-term sovereign credit rating from ‘CCC+’ to ‘B-’ on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, with a stable outlook, citing macro-stabilization policies and structural reforms that eased external financing risks, according to Reuters and the Xinhua news agency. Fitch cautions that the country’s credit profile remains constrained by high government debt-to-GDP and modest foreign exchange reserves. Sri Lanka defaulted on its external debt in 2022.

Sri Lanka’s High Court on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, convicted 15 of the 24 defendants in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and ordered the acquittal and release of the other nine, according to the BBC and the Xinhua news agency. Among those convicted is Naufer Moulavi, whom prosecutors named as the organiser of the attacks that killed 270 people and injured more than 500 on April 21, 2019, at three churches and three luxury hotels. The trial ran on 23,270 charges and lasted nearly five years. The convicted men have yet to be sentenced.

Sri Lanka is expected to learn on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the verdict in the trial of 24 defendants over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, the deadliest attack on civilians in the country’s history. The hearing at the Colombo High Court was due to open at 9:30 am local time (0400 GMT), with heavy security around the court complex, according to Agence France-Presse. Prosecutors filed 23,270 charges against the 24 defendants, the highest number ever brought in a single case in Sri Lanka, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Each defendant faces hundreds of counts because the indictment lists a separate charge for every person killed or wounded. All have denied involvement, and some could face the death penalty, which Sri Lanka has not carried out since 1976 and which is usually commuted to life imprisonment. Prosecutors identify Mohamed Naufar (Naufer Moulavi) as the ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that struck three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people including 45 foreigners, according to AFP; BBC News puts the toll at 270. The trial runs alongside a separate investigation into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, in custody and accused of orchestrating the attacks, which he denies; in July 2026, two former security officials were sentenced to death for failing to prevent the bombings despite intelligence warnings.