Firebrand monk sentenced to rigorous imprisonment

COLOMBO: A firebrand Buddhist monk was sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment in Sri Lanka on Wednesday for contempt of court.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara had already been sentenced to six months in June for intimidating a woman, whose cartoonist husband was abducted by the military, during a trial two years ago.

The Court of Appeal handed down Wednesday’s additional sentence after finding him guilty of disruptive behaviour during that trial as well.

Rigorous imprisonment in Sri Lanka typically sees convicts performing menial tasks around the prison, such as cleaning toilets, kitchen duties and washing laundry by hand.

Gnanasara, who has faced several previous cases on charges of hate crimes against minority Muslims in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, was admitted to hospital on Tuesday, officials said, and was not present at the sentencing.

His intimidation of Sandya Eknaligoda took place when he attended the 2016 trial of military officers accused of abducting her husband Prageeth in 2010.

Prageeth’s cartoons lampooned former strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse.

Gnanasara accused Eknaligoda and her husband of supporting Tamil extremists and bringing the military into disrepute.

Last year, Gnanasara spent a month on the run as police pursued him in connection with a string of attacks against Muslims. He later surrendered.

His Bodu Bala Sena ( BBS), or Buddhist Force, has denied allegations it was behind riots against Muslims in 2017 and 2014 that left four people dead.

Gnanasara maintains close ties with Wirathu, an extremist monk based in Myanmar whose hate speech has stoked religious tensions in that country.

Wirathu visited Sri Lanka as a guest of Gnanasara shortly after the 2014 violence in Sri Lanka’s tourist resort of Aluthgama. — AFP