Sri Lankan Court Orders Iranian Seaman's Body to be handed over to Embassy

Sri Lanka Court on Wednesday ordered a hospital to hand over the bodies of 84 Iranian sailors, who were found at sea following a US submarine attack last week, to the Iranian Embassy in Colombo.

Galle Chief Magistrate Sameera Dodangoda issued the order following a request by police, according to local media outlet Daily Mirror.

The bodies were kept in two mobile refrigerators at a hospital in Galle, a coastal city in southern Sri Lanka, Anadolu reported (12/3).

The sailors were among those killed after a US submarine attacked the Iranian IRIS Dena warship in waters off Sri Lanka last Wednesday.

The Sri Lankan navy launched a rescue mission after the incident.

The Iranian military reported that the US attack killed 104 of the 130 sailors on the ship. However, Sri Lankan authorities said they had found 84 bodies from the water and rescued 32 sailors, while 14 others were still missing.

Days later, Sri Lanka also evacuated 208 crew members from a second Iranian ship, the IRIS Bushehr, after requesting help from Colombo.

Both ships were on their way home from the Milan Peace 2026 naval exercise in India.

Previously, Sri Lanka said on Monday it would grant one-month visas to the rescued Iranian sailors.

Debris and oil drums from the sunken IRIS Dena ship were later washed up on parts of Sri Lanka's southern coastline, triggering cleanup efforts and environmental monitoring by authorities, according to local media reports.

Opposition politicians have criticized the government, saying protecting the sailors risks dragging the island nation into the Middle East conflict.

The government said it was bearing the cost of the stranded sailors and providing medical care on humanitarian grounds.

It is known that tensions have increased in the Middle East, following the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, which Tehran said killed more than 1,300 people, including Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and more than 150 students.

Since then, Iran has launched drone and missile attacks targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf states hosting US military assets.

Tehran has also effectively tightened the Strait of Hormuz since March 1. This narrow waterway transports around 20 million barrels of oil per day and about 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas trade.