Colombo, Oct 26 A group of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks protesting to demand a presidential pardon for jailed firebrand religious leader Galagodaatte Gnanasara has temporarily called off its agitation following intervention by senior prelates.
Gnanasara, 51, is serving a jail sentence for contempt of court.
“We decided to stop the protest temporarily in respect of the order by the chief prelates,” Ulapane Sumangala, a leading monk involved in the agitation, told reporters here on Sunday.
Sumangala said the senior monks have assured the protesters that they would take up the issue of a possible pardon for Gnanasara with the government.
Gnanasara, who has led the Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force) since 2012, was at the forefront of a hardline Buddhist nationalist campaign that drew criticism for its rhetoric towards Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority.
He was sent back to prison earlier this month to serve the remainder of a six-year sentence after being convicted of contempt of court.
In a joint statement dated Sunday, the four chief prelates of Sri Lanka’s three main monastic orders said the continuation of the protest violated the disciplinary standards expected of Buddhist monks and risked bringing disrepute to the monastic community both locally and internationally.
Earlier this month, the protesting monks marched from the central town of Kandy to Colombo to submit a memorandum to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, urging him to pardon Gnanasara.
The case has also sparked controversy over the treatment of Gnanasara in prison.
Prison authorities had required him to appear in court in civilian clothes after he was disrobed, prompting protests from monks who argued that only the monastic council of his Buddhist sect had the authority to strip him of his robes.
Following Dissanayake’s intervention, prison rules were gazetted to allow Gnanasara to appear in court wearing a monk’s robes.
In 2016, Gnanasara disrupted a court hearing in a case concerning the abduction of a journalist, in which military intelligence officials were accused. He was sentenced in 2018 for contempt of court and intimidating the wife of the journalist who disappeared in 2010.
However, Gnanasara served less than a year of that sentence because he received a pardon in 2019 from Maithripala Sirisena, who was the country’s president at the time.
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court overturned the pardon last month, citing procedural errors, requiring him to serve the remaining part of his sentence.
(PTI News)
