Bail for suicide bombers’ brother: Postponed to June 8

• The accused is a brother of Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ibrahim, both of whom had carried out attacks in the series of bombings that took place on Easter Sunday in 2019 

By T. Farook Thajudeen   

Colombo High Court Judge Nawaratna Marasinghe yesterday postponed for June 8 to deliver his order on granting bail to Mohamed Ibrahim Ismail, the brother of the two Easter Sunday suicide bombers who were involved in the Easter Sunday Attacks of 2019.    

The accused is a brother of Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ibrahim, both of whom had carried out attacks in the series of bombings that took place on Easter Sunday in 2019 at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Colombo.   

At the outset of inquiry before High Court Judge Nawaratna Marasinghe Counsel Inlinda Indatissa PC on behalf of the accused Mohamed Ibrahim Ismail sought bail for the accused and contended that the first and the second accused in the case were already granted bail by the court and moved to grant bail to the third accused Mohamed Ibrahim Ismail.   

He also contended that the Bail Act has provisions to grant bail to a suspect who is in remand for more than one year, without any charges filed in court.   

The Counsel said that his client was not directly involved to the crime and he was kept in remand for not disclosing the crime to the Police.   

The Counsel said that the other two accused who were in remand with the accused were granted bail and therefore to release his client too on bail.   

Deputy Solicitor General Lakmini Girihagama objecting bail to the accused said that the other two accused were granted bail under special circumstances of the Bail Act.   

She submitted that the first suspect was granted bail due to his health condition and the second accused was granted bail on considering the age of his child.   

She underscored the fact that the Bail Act does not provide any provisions to grant bail to an accused in the calibre of the 3rd suspect.   

Judge Marasinghe postponed his decision for June 8. 

 
The three accused in this case was the suicide bombers’ millionaire father Mohammed Ibrahim and two brothers of the two suicide bombers, Inshaf Ahmed and Ilham Ahmed, who carried out the suicide bombings.