The Chief Prelates of the Buddhist chapters have not so far asked the government to release Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said on Tuesday — and even if they did, he said, the government would act within the existing law and would not override a court decision.
The Minister was speaking at the weekly Cabinet media briefing, the Daily Mirror reported at 5.16 p.m. Colombo time.
What the government says it did act on
Jayatissa drew a line between two separate things the prelates have raised with it.
On prison conditions, he said the government amended the Prisons Department’s Standing Orders after receiving a letter sent by the four Chief Prelates to the Commissioner General of Prisons. Discussions followed with representatives of the prelates — including Anunayake Theros — and with officials, and those talks produced an agreement to amend the relevant prison regulations. Authorities would now proceed under the amended Standing Orders, he said, and the government had taken action on the matters the prelates raised.
That sequence matches this archive. A committee’s recommendations on prison rules for monks were given a two-week deadline in mid-October, its interim report went to the ministry on 14 October, and an extraordinary gazette gave imprisoned monks the right to wear robes outside prison on 24 October, with the decision resting with their Nikaya.
On release, his position was that nothing has been asked. “The Government operates on the basis that everyone is subject to the law,” he said, repeating that it would not place itself above the judiciary or seek to overturn a court decision. Gnanasara Thera is serving a sentence for contempt of court, and the Supreme Court invalidated an earlier presidential pardon in September. The statement is consistent with the government’s position on 16 October, when a minister ruled out a pardon.
The claim sits awkwardly against what the prelates themselves have said
The Minister’s “not so far” is narrower than it first sounds, but it is still in tension with three things already on the record in this archive.
- On 16 October, the Asgiriya Chapter’s Mahanayake, Most Ven. Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana Thera, asked a visiting delegation of prison officials whether any procedure existed to secure Gnanasara Thera’s release. Hiru News described him as requesting that action be taken to release the monk. The Commissioner of Prisons present replied that no definitive decision had been made.
- On 25 October, the four prelates’ own letter to the monks at the Viharamahadevi Park satyagraha stated that “we, as the Mahanayake Theros of the Three Nikayas, have made the necessary intervention with the government” to resolve the question concerning Gnanasara Thera “by lawful means and through discussion”. That letter is what ended the ten-day protest.
- On 26 October, the UNP said steps had previously been taken to secure a presidential pardon at the request of the Maha Nayake Theros, and called for a fresh pardon.
The accounts are not necessarily contradictory. The 16 October approach was made to a Prisons Department delegation rather than to the government, and was put as a question about procedure. An “intervention” to resolve a matter through discussion is not the same act as a formal request for release. The pardon the UNP refers to was granted under a previous administration. Read strictly, the Minister can be describing a formal request that has not been received while the prelates describe an engagement that has.
But the gap between the two framings is the live political question, and the filing does not close it. The prelates say publicly that they have intervened with the government over Gnanasara Thera; the government says it has been asked about prison rules and nothing else.
Not reported
The filing does not say what the government understands the prelates’ 25 October intervention to have consisted of, whether any meeting on release has taken place, or who attended. It does not define what would count as a request. It gives no response from the prelates to the Minister’s characterisation, does not say whether the government has replied to them in writing, and gives no date for the letter to the Commissioner General of Prisons.
Sourcing
This report rests on a single verified newsroom. Ada Derana filed on the same statement (“No request made by Chief Prelates to secure Gnanasara Thero’s release, says Cabinet Spokesman”, news ID 250643) but is not cited: its pages have returned a CloudFront error to this desk for 48 consecutive days and its publish date cannot be verified. Its news ID is consistent with Tuesday’s filing sequence. The Hiru News homepage rail and the NewsFirst rail, both fetched live after the briefing, did not carry the statement; Colombo Gazette, Daily News and news.lk could not be read from this desk this cycle. As a late-afternoon Cabinet briefing item, it may be picked up by the morning papers, and this report will be updated if it is.