Sri Lanka court revokes Buddhist monk's pardon

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a presidential pardon granted to Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara and ordered him back to prison to serve the rest of a six-year sentence.

A three-judge bench ruled that the pardon granted by then president Maithripala Sirisena in May 2019 was “arbitrary and invalid”. Gnanasara, 51, had been convicted of intimidating Sandya Eknaligoda, whose husband, political cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, disappeared in 2010 and remains missing.

The case challenging the pardon was brought by the Centre for Policy Alternatives and Sandya Eknaligoda. Rights groups had opposed the clemency, saying it weakened the rule of law.

Gnanasara, leader of the nationalist Bodu Bala Sena, was jailed in 2018 during proceedings linked to the investigation into Prageeth Eknaligoda's disappearance. He had appeared at a magistrate's hearing to support military intelligence officers accused of abducting the cartoonist.

During exchanges in court, Gnanasara accused the missing cartoonist and his wife of supporting Tamil extremists and damaging the military's reputation. He was later convicted of criminal intimidation and sentenced to six years in prison.

Sirisena granted the pardon after Gnanasara had served less than a year. The monk later remained politically active, including being appointed in 2020 by then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to head a legal reforms committee.