A Sri Lankan monk was given a nine-month sentence for remarks that were anti-Islamic

Galagodaatte Gnanasara, a monk from Sri Lanka, received a nine-month term for his anti-Islamic statements in 2016.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara, a well-known Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka who was close to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was given a nine-month prison sentence for inciting religious hate and making disparaging remarks about Islam.

Gnanasara was found guilty on Thursday by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court of making remarks at a news conference in 2016. Since Buddhist monks are rarely prosecuted in Sri Lanka, this decision is noteworthy. Gnanasara, who is regularly charged with hate speech and anti-Muslim violence, is being imprisoned for the second time.

This most recent sentence comes after a contentious presidential pardon in 2019 that freed Gnanasara from a six-year prison sentence for intimidation and contempt of court. Due to his provocative remarks, he was arrested in December 2023 and fined 1,500 Sri Lankan rupees (£4). The court decided that he would be imprisoned for an extra month if he did not pay the fee.

In its ruling, the court upheld the right to freedom of belief guaranteed by the Sri Lankan Constitution to all people, irrespective of their religious affiliation. Although Gnanasara has since challenged the decision, his request for bail was turned down.

During Rajapaksa’s administration, Gnanasara was assigned to lead a presidential task team on religious peace, which is how the two became acquainted. In 2022, during massive demonstrations against Sri Lanka’s economic woes, Rajapaksa resigned.

After serving nine months of a six-year sentence for threatening the wife of a missing political cartoonist in 2018, Gnanasara was pardoned by then-President Maithripala Sirisena. While appealing a four-year sentence, he was released on bond after being temporarily imprisoned last year on similar hate speech charges directed against the Muslim minority.