In a rare judicial reversal of executive clemency, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a presidential pardon granted to firebrand Buddhist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero - a case that tests the limits of political Buddhism.
In May 2019, then-President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Gnanasara, leader of hardline Bodu Bala Sena, who was serving prison terms for contempt of court and criminal intimidintimidation. The petition was filed by Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives and Sandya Eknaligoda, wife of disappeared cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, forcibly disappeared since 2010. In January 2016, Gnanasara had stormed a courtroom and openly threatened her when a magistrate court was hearing her husband's case.
Seven years later, the Supreme Court has ruled Sirisena's action was "arbitrary" and declared it "null and void." The ruling is significant in Sinhala Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, where Buddhist clergy wields considerable religious and political power.
Gnanasara rose to prominence in 2012 founding BBS, widely known for provocative anti-Muslim remarks and mobilisations, becoming a prominent symbol for surging anti-Muslim rhetoric after the civil war ended in 2009. Two years after his pardon, his successor Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him to a Presidential Task Force to draft proposals on legal reforms - a move widely criticised by rights defenders.
The court has not just revoked a pardon; it has signaled that presidential pardon cannot be a tool to protect majoritarian intimidation. For Sandya Eknaligoda, who has fought for 15 years to find her husband, it is vindication. For Sri Lanka's fragile rule of law, recovering from Rajapaksa-era impunity and 2022 economic collapse, it shows judiciary can still check executive-saffron nexus. The question now: will the monk return to jail, or will politics find another loophole?