No criminal action has been recommended against former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) appointed to probe the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks.

However, the PCoI’s final report has found fault with former Prime Minister Wickremesinghe over the attacks.

“After the constitutional crisis in October 2018, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe did not take part in National Security Council (NSC) meetings. However, even after his appointment as Prime Minister in December, 2018, he was not invited by President Sirisena for any NSC meetings. The COI sees no justifiable reason for the failure to do so on the part of President Sirisena. However, it was incumbent on the Prime Minister to have raised this issue in Parliament or at the Cabinet in order to ensure that the status quo is restored. The failure on the part of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to do so and after the Easter attack, take up the position, that he was not invited is unacceptable,’ the PCoI report said.

The report further said upon consideration of the evidence, it is of the view that the lax approach of Wickremesinghe towards Islam extremism as the Prime Minister was one of the primary reasons for the failure on the part of then Government to prevent the Easter Sunday terror attacks.