Muslim poet Ahnaf Jazeem, who was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and jailed for more than 18 months without charge, has been released and reunited with his family after initially being denied bail on "technical issues".
Jazeem was detained in May 2020 by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) for allegedly “promoting extremism and violence” to children. His arrest was based on an unofficial translation of one of Jazeem’s poems, titled “Navarasam.” Tamil literature experts and scholars noted a lack of incendiary language and therefore baseless detention of Jazeem.
It was only in May 2021 that Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered prison authorities to permit lawyers access to the poet.
Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who presented an oral statement during the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, pointed out that Jazeem had been detained without charge since May 2020.
Several international and domestic human rights organizations, including Freedom Now, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have also condemned Jazeem’s detention.
