COLOMBO (AFP) – A Sri Lankan court yesterday sentenced an influential monk to four years’ hard labour for fanning sectarian hatred against the island’s minority population.
The Colombo High Court found Galagodaatte Gnanasara had hurt religious sentiments by making disparaging remarks at a 2016 press conference.
“The monk was sentenced to four years of hard labour and fined LKR100,000 (USD330),” a court official said. “He was sent to prison to start serving his sentence.”
Gnanasara has been accused of instigating violence against religious minorities in the country.
He has close ties with Wirathu, an extremist monk based in Myanmar.
This is not the first time that Gnanasara, who once enjoyed powerful political ties, has been in jail.
In 2018, he was sentenced to six years for intimidating the wife of a missing cartoonist and contempt of court but was freed nine months later after former president Maithripala Sirisena pardoned him.
Ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa later made Gnanasara the head of a panel to recommend legal reforms to ensure religious harmony.
At the time, opposition lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam described Gnanasara’s committee as “the definition of irony”.
