Sri Lanka: Radical Buddhist monk found guilty

Sri Lanka | 15 June 2018

According to a report by UCA News on 29 May 2018, a court in Homagama has found radical Buddhist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara guilty of criminally intimidating the wife of a well-known cartoonist and government critic, who was abducted in 2010 and whose fate is still unknown. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Although the exact sentence will not be passed until 14 June 2018, this is an encouraging development for Christians. The conviction is a first and shows that neither radical Buddhist citizens nor Buddhist monks are immune against prosecution, even when they claim to be protecting the country. Gnanasara is well-known for spreading hatred against the Muslim minority in Sri Lanka, but he has spoken out against the evangelical Christian minority as well. If both the conviction and the sentencing show that civil courage pays off, this would be a great encouragement for the journalist"s wife as well as for countless pastors who stand up against Buddhist mobs, calling for their constitutional right of freedom of worship to be respected."