A hardline Sri Lankan monk who was a close ally of ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.
Galagodaatte Gnanasara was found guilty on Thursday for comments he made in 2016.
It is rare for Buddhist monks to be convicted in Sri Lanka, but this is the second time Gnanasara has been jailed, and he has been accused of hate crimes and anti-Muslim violence on several occasions.
The sentence by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court came after he was previously sentenced to six years in prison for intimidation and contempt of court, following a presidential pardon in 2019.
Gnanasara was arrested in December 2016 for remarks he made at a media conference, where he made several derogatory statements about Islam.
On Thursday, the court said all citizens, regardless of their religion, enjoy constitutional freedom of worship.
He was also fined 1,500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5; £4). The court ruling also states that if the fine is not paid, an additional month in prison will be imposed.
Gnanasara has appealed the verdict. The court rejected a request by his lawyers for bail, asking that he be released on bail pending a final decision on the appeal.
He was a reliable ally of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign and flee abroad in 2022 after mass protests broke out in the island nation over the economic crisis.
During Rajapaksa’s presidency, Gnanasara, who also led the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist group, was appointed head of a presidential task force working on legal reforms to protect religious harmony.
After Rajapaksa stepped down, Gnanasara was jailed last year on similar charges related to hate speech against the country’s Muslim minority, but was granted bail while appealing his four-year sentence.
In 2018, he was sentenced to six years in prison for contempt of court and intimidating the wife of a political cartoonist who was widely believed to have disappeared, but he served only nine months thanks to a pardon from then-President Maithripala Sirisena.
