Freedom Now welcomes the Puttalam High Court’s decision to acquit poet and teacher Ahnaf Jazeem of terrorism charges more than three and a half years after he was arrested. According to local reports, the court reached its decision after determining that the government did not present enough evidence to prove its allegations. Despite the acquittal, the Puttalam High Court refused to award any reparations to Jazeem for the judicial harassment and wrongful detention he suffered as the result of the government’s prosecution.
“We welcome the court’s long overdue decision,” said Freedom Now’s Legal Officer Adam Lhedmat. “It is our hope that this decision signals greater adherence to the rule of law by Sri Lanka’s judiciary. However, it cannot be ignored that Ahnaf spent 19 months in pre-trial detention in inhumane conditions. Sri Lanka must act swiftly to afford Jazeem rehabilitation and reparations for the violation of his fundamental rights.”
Prior to his arrest, Jazeem had been employed since July 2019 as a Tamil language and literature teacher at the School of Excellence, a private international school in Puttalam, a city on the northwest coast.
Since his enrollment in university, Jazeem has published award-winning poems and short stories under the pen name Mannaramuthu Ahnaf. In 2017, he published his first book of poetry in Tamil – Navarasm. The book touched on a wide range of issues within public and private life, such as religion, love, drugs, and Islamic history. The publication was launched at Jazeem’s university with nearly 1,000 people in attendance.
On May 16, 2020, authorities from the Counter-Terrorism and Investigations Division arrested Jazeem under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act on allegations of “teaching and the publication of books on racism and extremism to students.” The law allows suspects to be held for long periods of pre-trial detention. Jazeem has been subjected to numerous due process violations during his detention. He was denied access to lawyers for the first 10 months of his detention, authorities have attempted to use access to his family to coerce a confession from him, and a court did not order that he be held in detention until June 2021. An official indictment was not filed against him until November 2021.
As part of the investigation, the government commissioned a translation of Jazeem’s poetry as only approximately 30% of the population speaks Tamil. Despite an expert analysis, which has been criticized by Tamil language experts, the government has failed to demonstrate how the poem anthology promotes violence. To the contrary, the book includes poems condemning ISIS, declaring that the terrorist organization has nothing to do with Islam.
In December 2021, Jazeem was released on bail while charges were still pending against him.
Freedom Now filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Jazeem in September 2021. The Working Group determined his detention was a violation of international law in April 2022.