The United National Party has called for an immediate presidential pardon for Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, to be facilitated by the Maha Nayake Theros of the Three Chapters, saying it is the way to resolve the crisis around his imprisonment.
The party set out its position in a statement, reported by the Daily Mirror at 5.23 p.m. Colombo time on Monday.
The argument
The UNP’s case rests on a sentencing point. It cites former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva for the proposition that the maximum prison sentence for contempt of court is 18 months, and says Gnanasara Thera has already served more than 10 months.
The party also says that steps had previously been taken to secure a presidential pardon for the Thera at the request of the Maha Nayake Theros, and claims the Supreme Court ruling indicated that another presidential pardon could be considered.
The timing
The statement follows the suspension of the Viharamahadevi Park satyagraha. The UNP notes that the protest demanding the Thera’s release had been suspended following a notification by the Maha Nayake Theros — the development this desk reported on Sunday. The party is therefore proposing the pardon as the next step now that the street protest has ended, and casting the same prelates who closed the protest as the channel for resolving it.
Two criticisms of the government
Alongside the pardon call, the party made two further demands:
- It criticised the government for obtaining court orders against Buddhist monks who had not participated in the protest march and satyagraha, calling the move a serious mistake. This desk reported the court order to disperse on 22 October.
- It called for an investigation into those responsible for ordering the removal of the Thera’s robes — an issue the UNP has raised before, and which has run alongside a writ application and a prisons gazette on monks’ robes.
What this does not establish
The 18-month figure is the UNP’s characterisation of a former Chief Justice’s view, not a ruling. Sarath N. Silva has not held office since 2009, and the filing does not say when or where he made the statement, or quote him directly. Nor does the report identify the Supreme Court ruling the party says left room for a further pardon, quote the passage relied on, or indicate whether any other party reads it the same way.
The filing carries no response from the government, the President’s office or the Attorney-General, and no indication that a pardon is under consideration. It does not name the UNP official who issued the statement. The party holds a single seat in the current Parliament, so the call is a political intervention rather than a parliamentary one.
Sourcing
Ada Derana filed on the same statement (“UNP calls for presidential pardon for Gnanasara Thero”, news ID 250566) but is not cited: its pages have returned a CloudFront error to this desk for 47 consecutive days and its publish date cannot be verified. The NewsFirst rail did not carry the statement. Hiru’s rail also carried a separate Supreme Court ruling on a different Ranil Wickremesinghe pardon, which is not this story.
Update, Monday night: Hiru files, and corroborates every figure
Hiru News filed its own report on the statement at 8.13 p.m. Colombo time, just under three hours after the Daily Mirror and after this report was first published. An earlier version of this article said Hiru’s rail had not carried the statement; that was accurate when written but is now superseded, and Hiru is cited above.
Hiru’s account confirms the Daily Mirror’s on every substantive point, which matters because the sentencing arithmetic is the whole of the UNP’s case. Hiru independently reports the same 18-month ceiling for contempt of court attributed to former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, and the same more than 10 months already served. It likewise has the party saying the earlier pardon was granted at the request of the Maha Nayake Theros, and that the Supreme Court judgment itself indicates a further presidential pardon may be considered.
Hiru also carries both of the party’s criticisms of the government — the court orders obtained against monks who did not join the march and satyagraha, described as a serious error, and the call for an investigation into those who ordered the removal of the Thera’s robes. On the timing, Hiru is explicit that the satyagraha was suspended in accordance with the notification of the Maha Nayake Theros of the Three Chapters, matching the sequence set out above.
The two filings together make this a corroborated account of what the UNP said. They do not make the UNP’s legal proposition correct — the cautions in the section above stand unchanged, because both outlets are reporting the same party statement rather than independently testing it.