Sri Lanka court revokes monk's pardon, orders return to prison

FILE photo shows Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, head of Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena, accompanied by prison officers after he was sentenced by a court for threatening the wife of missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, Homagama, Sri Lanka June 14, 2018. - Photo: Reuters file

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court overturned Thursday (Sept 10) a presidential pardon granted to a hardline Buddhist monk and ordered him to serve the remainder of a six-year prison sentence for intimidating the wife of a missing cartoonist.

The ruling marks a major setback for Galagodaatte Gnanasara, 51, a Buddhist nationalist monk whose critics accuse him of fuelling anti-Muslim sentiment and religious tensions in Sri Lanka.