(COLOMBO) – A fire brand Sri Lankan Buddhist monk has been dropped from a list of prison inmates that are due for a presidential pardon to mark the Buddhist Holy Week of Vesak that began on Thursday, officials with the Department of Prisons said.
They said the controversial monk Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero who is serving a four-year prison term for slighting Islam during a fiery speech in 2016 is not among the 278 inmates to be released during this period.
This development comes even as the senior most Buddhist clergy in the country had campaigned for his early release with a direct appeal to President Ranil Wickremesinghe towards this end.
Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero was the General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a movement that campaigned for the rights of Buddhists in this pre-dominant Sinhala-Buddhist nation of 21 million people.
According to the officials ten female prisoners are among those who will receive the Presidential pardon. The pardon is under Clause 34 of the Constitution
