Sri Lanka arrests Muslim MP over 2019 Easter attacks that killed 279

Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested a prominent Muslim lawmaker and his brother over suspected connections to the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people.

Rishad Bathiudeen is a former Cabinet minister who currently leads an opposition party in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. He and his brother, Reyaj Bathiudeen, were arrested in the capital for allegedly “aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who committed the Easter Sunday carnage”, said police spokesman Ajith Rohana. He said the brothers have not yet been officially charged but were arrested based on direct evidence, as well as what he called circumstantial and “scientific” evidence.

Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to Islamic State have been blamed for the six near-simultaneous blasts at two Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church and three tourist hotels. Both Muslims and Catholics are minorities in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists make up 70 per cent of the population.

Before his arrest Saturday, Bathiudeen wrote on Facebook that police were outside his house “since 1.30am today attempting to arrest me without a charge. … They have already arrested my brother. I have been in Parliament, and have cooperated with all lawful authorities until now. This is unjust.”

Rushdhie Habeeb, a lawyer representing Bathiudeen, called the arrests politically motivated and said: “No reasons for the arrest had been given at the time of their arrest by those who conducted the midnight raid.”

In his statement, Habeeb said the purpose was to “punish the political leadership of the Muslims, which had nothing to do with 21/4, for the dastardly acts of some Muslim youths who were widely alleged as having been used as pawns by foreign powers”.