The Court of Appeal has ordered that Gnanasara Thero serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence

The Court of Appeal today (October 5) ordered that Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero serve the remainder of his six-year contempt of court sentence.

He was produced before the court today following his arrest on Saturday at a monastery in Kalutara.

Gnanasara Thero began serving the six-year sentence in August 2018, before being released from prison through a Presidential pardon around nine months later.

Background

Gnanasara Thero’s contempt of court charges stem from an incident in January 2016, when he disrupted a Homagama Magistrate’s Court hearing on the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

He addressed the court without permission and threatened Sandya Ekneligoda, the wife of the missing journalist.

In May 2018, the Homagama Magistrate’s Court found him guilty of threatening Sandya Ekneligoda within the court premises and sentenced him to six months’ rigorous imprisonment.

In August 2018, the Court of Appeal convicted him on four counts of contempt of court over the same 2016 incident and sentenced him to 19 years’ rigorous imprisonment, to be completed concurrently within six years.

Gnanasara Thero began serving the sentence, before former President Maithripala Sirisena granted him a presidential pardon in May 2019, releasing him after about nine months in prison.

However, following a hearing of fundamental rights petitions filed in the Supreme Court by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and Sandya Ekneligoda, the court determined that the pardon granted was invalid in law and therefore null and void.