Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks, charged with crimes, are to have their court cases tried in a "separate court" said Prime Minister Jayaratne on Friday.
According to Jayaratne, the decision - currently a draft bill sitting with cabinet, was made in order to ease an overwhelming backlog of court cases involving monks.
Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks have undoubtedly had a busy few months of late (see below). However, Sri Lanka's inherent failure to investigate and prosecute crimes perpetrated by members of the Buddhist clergy, makes the government's reasoning an all the more ludricious attempt to justify the state's blatant disregard for the rule of law.
Sinhala Buddhist monks attack Japanese Buddhist temple (01 Oct 2011)
Monks destroy Muslim shrine as police stand idle (15 Sep 2011)
Calls for closure of Sri Lankan children’s homes (11 Sep 2011)
