Ibrahim Hajiyar Not Acquitted in Easter Sunday Case; He Was Not a Defendant

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After seven years of waiting, the verdict in the main Easter Sunday attacks case (HC 2972/21) was delivered on September 22, 2026, and the country was hungry for every detail of who was convicted and who walked free. Within hours, a post spread claiming that “Ibrahim Hajiyar”, the wealthy spice trader whose two sons were among the 2019 suicide bombers, had been acquitted and released. We checked whether he was even part of the case. Here is the post that carried the claim.

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Fact-Check:

Delivering its judgment in the main case on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks (HC 2972/21) on September 22, 2026, the Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar convicted and sentenced 15 defendants to prison and acquitted the remaining nine. More details are available here and here.

Twenty-four defendants were formally indicted before the Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar on 23,270 charges relating to the Easter Sunday attacks. Twenty-five had originally been named, but the 17th accused, Yaseem Bawa Abdul Rauf, has since died.

Mainstream media published the list of the 24 defendants and the names of the nine who were acquitted. Ibrahim Hajiyar, named in the post, was not among them.

The Post Was Not Published by “Headline News”

Neither “Headline News” nor any mainstream media outlet published an official report that he had been released. Headline News also confirmed that the post was not published by them.

According to official media reports, the defendants convicted and acquitted were as follows.

The 15 defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison:

1. Mohamed Naufer Moulavi (Naufer Moulavi)
2. Mohamed Sharif Adam Lebbe (Gafoor Mama)
3. Hayathu Mohamed Ahamed Milhan
4. Mohamed Ibrahim Sadiq Abdullah
5. Mohamed Ibrahim Shahid Abdul Haq
6. Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Rizkan
7. Mohamed Mansoor Mohamed Sanasdeen
8. Abdul Manaf Mohamed Firdous
9. Mohamed Rameez Mohamed Sajith
10. Abdul Latheef Mohamed Shafi (except on the 16th charge)
11. Husainul Rizvi Khalid Sameer
12. Mohamed Haniffa Zainul Abdeen
13. Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Haris
14. Rasik Raza Hussain
15. Kachchi Mohamed Mohamed Jemsith

The 9 defendants acquitted:

1. Mohamed Zawahir Mohamed Hassan
2. Mohamed Iftikar Mohamed Insaf
3. Rasheed Mohamed Ibrahim
4. Zainul Abdeen Mohamed Jaseem
5. Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Rizwan
6. Meera Sahib Mohamed Nafli
7. Mohamed Ameer Mohamed Ayathullah
8. Mohamed Ansardeen Mohamed Ilmi
9. Mohamed Akram Ahakkam

The official list makes it clear that the Ibrahim Hajiyar named in the post was not a defendant in this case. More details are available here, here and here.

Who Is Mohamed Ibrahim (Hajiyar)?

Ibrahim Hajiyar (Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Ibrahim) is the father of Ilham Ahmed and Inshaf Ahmed, two of the suicide bombers who conducted the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. He was arrested after the April 2019 attacks and released on strict bail conditions by the Colombo High Court on May 25, 2022. He remains on bail. More details are available here.

Mohamed Ibrahim Is on Bail and Must Report to the CID Every Three Months

When bail was granted on May 25, 2022, the court ordered Mohamed Ibrahim and his son to report to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on the first and last Sunday of every month. In October 2023, the Colombo High Court considered a request from their lawyers and relaxed these conditions. On October 18, 2023, taking into account that Mohamed Ibrahim was ill and confined to a wheelchair, the court replaced the twice-monthly reporting requirement with an order to report to the CID once every three months. More details are available here, here and here.

Ibrahim Hajiyar Was Not a Defendant in the Main Easter Case Decided on September 22

Although 15 defendants in the main Easter attacks case were sentenced to between 200 and 260 years in prison on September 22, 2026, the judgment did not apply to Ibrahim Hajiyar, because he was not a defendant in that case.

A Separate Case Against Him Is Still Being Heard

The Attorney General filed a separate case, HC 3072/21, in the Colombo High Court against Ibrahim Hajiyar and two of his sons, Mohamed Ibrahim Ijas Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim Ismail Ahmed. The main charge against them under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is that they knew of the planned Easter Sunday attacks but concealed the information and did not report it to the police.

Case HC 3072/21, filed under the PTA against Mohamed Ibrahim and two others, is still being heard before the Colombo High Court. Trial monitoring reports on the case are available here and here.

Court Reporters Confirmed He Was Neither Convicted nor Acquitted

We contacted court journalists who reported on the main Easter case on September 22, 2026. They confirmed that the post was completely false and misleading. They said Mohamed Ibrahim, or Ibrahim Hajiyar, was not a defendant in the case decided that day, so he was neither convicted nor acquitted. They also confirmed that a separate case over the Easter Sunday attacks was being heard against him and was still in progress.

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Conclusion:

Our fact-check found that the post claiming Ibrahim Hajiyar, also known as Mohamed Ibrahim, had been acquitted and released was completely false. He was not a defendant in the main Easter Sunday case (HC 2972/21), in which judgment was delivered on September 22, 2026, so he was neither convicted nor acquitted in it. Court reporters and the published list of defendants confirmed this, and Headline News confirmed it did not publish the post.

A separate case, HC 3072/21, was filed against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for allegedly concealing information about the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. That case is still being heard, and he remains on bail.