Controversial Sri Lankan monk jailed for insulting Islam

A Sri Lankan monk who is a close associate of ousted former president Gathabai Rajapaksa has been sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.

Galagodate Gnanasar was sentenced on Thursday for statements dating back to 2016.

Sri Lanka rarely convicts Buddhist monks, but this is the second time Gnanasara, who has been accused of hate crimes and violence against Muslims, has been jailed.

The sentence handed down by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court followed a presidential pardon he received in 2019 for a six-year sentence related to intimidation and contempt of court.

Gnanasara was arrested in December for remarks he made during a media conference in 2016, where he made several derogatory remarks against Islam.

On Thursday, the court said that all citizens, regardless of religion, have the right to freedom of belief under the Constitution.

he was also fined 1,500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5; £4). Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional month of imprisonment, the court order added.

Gnanasara appealed the sentence.

He was a trusted ally of former president Gathabai Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign and flee abroad following mass protests over the island nation’s economic crisis in 2022.

During Rajapaksa’s presidency, Gnanasara, who also heads a group of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists, was appointed head of a presidential task force on legal reforms aimed at protecting religious harmony.

After The Rajapaksa OysterGnanasara was jailed last year on a similar charge related to hate speech against the country’s Muslim minority, but was released on bail during an appeal against his four-year sentence.

In 2018, he was sentenced to six years for contempt of court intimidating the wife of a political cartoonist who is believed by many to have disappeared. However, he served only nine months of that term as he was pardoned by Maithripala Sirisena, who was the country’s president at the time.