An article published in the Daily FT on 29 April which reported that President Maithripala Sirisena was briefed by the SIS Director on 11 April about a possible terror attack, days prior to the incidents, was included in the Annexure to the Committee’s final report released yesterday. 

The only media report to be annexed to the PSC report was the Daly FT article.

“President (Sirisena) informed the PSC that he was only alerted sometime around 10/11 a.m. (Singapore time) regarding the attacks which corresponds to either 7.30/8.30 a.m. Sri Lankan time.  This indicates the President was briefed prior to the attacks.

 The PSC notes media reports (Daily FT 29 April) that he specifically mentioned that he was informed after the attacks,” the report said.

The PSC noted that the President did not return to Sri Lanka immediately after the attacks even though the presence of the President during a national emergency is critical, reinforced further by the fact that President is the Commander-in-Chief and head of the Government. 

“He is also the person who has the power to call out the security forces and declare emergency. The PSC was informed that the President had checked as to whether he could return to Sri Lanka on an earlier flight but that all flights were full. The President also informed the PSC that he was offered a plane by the Singaporean Government to return but he had declined this offer as the time of arrival of his booked flight and the plane would have arrived around the same time.”

The report also noted that political tensions between the President and the Prime Minister not only kept key political actors out of National Security Council (NSC) briefings but the NSC was thrown into uncertainty by the instructions given by the President soon after the Easter Sunday attacks not to attend a meeting called by the Prime Minister.

The PSC said political and personal problems should have been left out of a national security response at a time of national urgency and added that the failure of the President to appoint an acting Minister for Defence when he left Sri Lanka on 16 April exacerbated the confusion and uncertainty soon after the attacks. 

Intelligence failures, political failings blamed for terror attacks