Sri Lanka Court Revokes Monk's Pardon, Orders Return to Prison
A three-judge bench ruled the 2019 clemency was invalid and reinstated a six-year sentence for intimidating Sandya Eknaligoda.
- On Thursday, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court overturned the presidential pardon of Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, ordering him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence for intimidating a cartoonist's wife.
- Gnanasara was originally convicted of intimidating Sandya Eknaligoda during court proceedings where he supported military intelligence officers accused of abducting her husband, political cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.
- A three-judge bench ruled the 2019 pardon by then-President Maithripala Sirisena was "arbitrary and invalid," rejecting clemency granted to the Bodu Bala Sena leader after he served less than a year.
- Rights groups opposed the clemency, arguing it undermined the rule of law, while critics accused the monk of fueling anti-Muslim sentiment and religious tensions in the Buddhist-majority nation.
- Despite his criminal record, then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Gnanasara to head a legal reforms committee in 2020, though he had also served a separate nine-month term for inciting religious hostility against Islam.
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Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has overturned a presidential pardon granted to hardline Buddhist monk Kalagoda Atte Gnansar, who was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly threatening the wife of a political cartoonist.
Sri Lanka court revokes monk's pardon, orders return to prison
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court overturned Thursday a presidential pardon granted to a hardline Buddhist monk and ordered him to serve the remainder of a six-year prison sentence for intimidating the wife of a missing cartoonist.
Sri Lanka court revokes monk’s pardon, orders return to prison
COLOMBO (AFP) : Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court overturned Thursday a presidential pardon granted to a hardline Buddhist monk and ordered him to serve the remainder of a six-year prison sentence for intimidating the wife of a missing cartoonist. The ruling marks a major setback for Galagodaatte Gnanasara, 51, a Buddhist nationalist monk whose critics accuse […]
Overturned: Sri Lanka court revokes monk's pardon, orders return to prison
Sri Lanka Supreme Court Invalidates Presidential Pardon Granted to Bodu Bala Sena Leader Gannasara thero • Sri Lanka Brief
Image: Ganasara in his heyday! The Supreme Court has ruled that the presidential pardon granted in 2019 by former President Maithripala Sirisena to Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero is invalid. Gnanasara Thero had been sentenced to prison on charges of contempt of court. The ruling was delivered after considering Fundamental […]
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