On Thursday, a Sri Lankan court sentenced the politically influential Buddhist monk, Galagodaatte Gnanasara, to nine months in prison for making anti-Muslim remarks that date back to 2016. This marks his second incarceration for inciting religious hatred in the nation.
Gnanasara, who previously served a sentence last year for disparaging Sri Lanka’s minority Muslims, was on bail pending an appeal against a four-year sentence. Muslims comprise just over 10% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population.
The monk has ties to former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who 2021 appointed him to lead a panel tasked with reforming the nation’s legal system to promote religious harmony. At the time, opposition lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam criticized the appointment, calling it “the definition of irony.”
Following the resignation of his patron, Rajapaksa, amid protests over an economic crisis in 2022, Gnanasara faced a fall from grace and renewed legal challenges.
