> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Police Arrest Gnanasara Thero at Forest Monastery After Court No-Shows - URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/police-arrest-gnanasara-thero-at-forest-monastery-after-court-no-shows/ - Published: 2026-10-03T14:27:38.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-03T14:27:38.000Z - Author: Our Reporter - Tags: October 2026 **COLOMBO, Sri Lanka:** Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, the general secretary of the Buddhist nationalist group Bodu Bala Sena, at a forest monastery in the Thiniyawala area of Kalutara District. Two courts issued warrants for his arrest this week after he failed to appear. The Colombo Crimes Division made the arrest on an outstanding court warrant, the police media spokesperson said. The monk had not been seen in public for most of the past weeks. After the Supreme Court annulled his 2019 presidential pardon on Sept. 10, prison officials went to his temple in Nawala, Rajagiriya, to return him to prison to serve the rest of a six-year sentence. He was not there and was later reported missing. On Sept. 29, the Court of Appeal issued an arrest warrant after he failed to appear in contempt-of-court proceedings. The court ordered that he be produced before it on Oct. 1 and that the warrant be executed through the Inspector General of Police. The order followed a motion by the Attorney General asking the court to give effect to the Supreme Court judgment. When he failed to appear again on Oct. 1, Justices Mayadunne Corea and Lakmali Karunanayake issued an open warrant and barred him from leaving the country. On Sept. 30, the Colombo High Court issued a separate warrant after he failed to attend hearings in a case filed by the Attorney General over remarks he allegedly made about the Quran. His lawyer told the court he was unwell. His sureties also did not appear. The six-year sentence arises from an incident at the Homagama Magistrate's Court on Jan. 25, 2016\. He was not a party to the case before the court that day, but he entered the courtroom without permission and demanded bail for military intelligence officers held on remand. The officers were suspects in the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda, a political cartoonist and journalist who went missing in January 2010\. The Court of Appeal later convicted the monk on four counts of contempt of court. He had served about nine months of the sentence when former President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned him in May 2019\. The Centre for Policy Alternatives and Sandya Ekneligoda, the cartoonist's wife, filed petitions challenging the pardon. A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Janak de Silva found that the pardon violated natural justice and the right to equality under Article 12(1) of the Constitution. Justice de Silva noted that the official file recommending the pardon gave no reason for granting it, and that Mr. Sirisena had approved the recommendation without more. The court held that a pardon does not alter a conviction or sentence imposed by a competent court. It also said a president may pardon the monk again, provided the decision is made according to law and after due consideration of the material. Mr. Sirisena told reporters on Sept. 12 that he had granted the pardon under the constitutional powers he held at the time and that he was not yet fully aware of the court's decision. The monk has a further conviction against him. On Jan. 9, 2025, the Colombo Magistrate's Court found him guilty over remarks insulting Islam made at a 2016 media briefing in Kirulapone, and sentenced him to nine months in prison and a fine. On June 23 this year, Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Thilakaratne dismissed his appeal and upheld the sentence. Gnanasara Thera co-founded Bodu Bala Sena in 2012 and led its campaigns against Muslim businesses, mosques and religious practices. Rights groups accused him of inciting the June 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama and Beruwala, which began after he addressed a rally in Aluthgama. He was never charged over the violence. In 2021, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him to chair a presidential task force on "One Country, One Law." Muslim and Tamil political leaders opposed the appointment. He is to be produced before the Court of Appeal and the Colombo High Court under the warrants.