Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has overturned a presidential pardon granted to a hardline Buddhist monk and asked him to return to prison.
Galagodaatte Gnanasara, a top member of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or "Buddhist Power Force", was sentenced to six years in prison by the court of appeal after being found guilty of contempt of court.
He was also found guilty of intimidating Sandya Eknaligoda, the wife of political cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who was forcibly disappeared in 2010.
Gnanasara interrupted a court hearing in 2016 over the abduction of the cartoonist in which military intelligence officials were accused. He shouted at the judge and lawyers because the military officials had not been allowed bail, and threatened Eknaligoda’s wife.
Eknaligoda was critical of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a nationalist who justified the brutal end to the civil war in 2019 by portraying himself as the nation’s spiritual saviour.
Gnanasara served less than a year of his prison sentence before the then president Maithripala Sirisena pardoned him.
The apex court on Thursday ruled that the presidential pardon was "arbitrary" and declared it invalid, while ordering the monk to return to serve the rest of his prison sentence. The pardon was challenged by Ms Eknaligoda along with Colombo-based non-profit organisation Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The BBS, led by Gnanasara, has been accused of stirring up violence against Muslims and Christians, mainly in Buddhist-dominated parts of Sri Lanka. The monk has denied these allegations.
The monk has faced accusations in cases regarding anti-Muslim violence, hate speech, and defaming the Quran.
Sirisena’s successor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, appointed Gnanasara to a presidential task force to draft proposals on legal reforms, a move that faced widespread criticism.
In 2024, he was sentenced to four years in prison for inciting hatred against Muslims during a 2016 press conference. He was later granted bail.
A year later, he was sent to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.
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