‘I have done my duty and do not regret what I did’

MONK DEFIANT AFTER INTIMIDATION JAIL VERDICT

A FIREBRAND Buddhist monk was sentenced to six months in jail by a Sri Lankan court last Thursday (14) for in­timidating a woman whose cartoonist hus­band has been missing since his abduction by the military.

The court in Homaga­ma, near the capital Co­lombo, also fined Gala­godaatte Gnanasara `1,500 ($10) and ordered him to pay `50,000 in compensa­tion to Sandya Eknaligoda for abusing her in January 2016.

He was found guilty on two counts of intimidation and given six months for each offence, both sentences to be served concurrently. This is the first time Gnanasara has been put behind bars, although he has faced several previ­ous cases on charges of hate crimes against minority Mus­lims in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka.

The saffron-robed monk tried to deliver a statement as the sentence was read out before a packed courtroom, but was stopped short by the judge. Outside the courthouse, however, he remained defiant. “I have done my duty by my country,” Gnanasara said as police led him to a prison bus. “I do not regret what I did.”

A spokesman for his Buddhist Force said it had already filed an appeal. Gnanasara was found guilty of criminally intimidating Eknaligoda during a hearing at the same court on the abduction of her cartoonist husband Prageeth, who went missing in January 2010.

He had been there to voice his support for the military officers accused of abducting Prageeth, whose cartoons lampooned former president Mahinda Rajapakse. In ugly scenes inside the courthouse, he accused Eknaligoda and her husband of supporting Tamil extremists and bringing the military into disrepute.

He faces a separate contempt hearing at the Colombo high court over the incident. After the verdict Eknaligoda said she was pleased with the outcome and hoped the pun­ishment would deter others.

“I am happy this turned out like this. Some people thought that the monk will get off lightly with a suspended sentence, but it did not happen,” she said. “We can still have hope in the judiciary.”

Eknaligoda’s perseverance in campaigning to find out what happened to her husband earned her an “Interna­tional Women of Courage” award last year from US First Lady Melania Trump.

US ambassador Atul Keshap posted on Twitter after the verdict that Eknaligoda was “an eminently worthy and brave-hearted” recipient of the award for courage. (AFP)