Ahnaf to finally meet his lawyers

Colombo Additional Magistrate Chandima Liyanage today (22) ordered the Terrorism Investigation Division to appear in court on the 29th with a summary of all the evidence presented against the poet Ahnaf Jazeem.

The complaint against the poet was called today following a motion filed by his lawyers. His lawyers said that when he was produced before the court, his family members or lawyers were not informed about the incident.

“The poet was secretly produced before the court and remanded after. Neither we as his lawyers nor his parents were notified of him being produced before the court. When Ahnaf’s family inquired about this, they did not give an exact answer at first. It had been arranged to request certain important orders from the court when he is produced in the court. However, due to TID secretly presenting him in court, we missed the opportunity to make those demands,” said Sanjaya Wilson Jayasekara, a lawyer representing the poet.

“The poet had been subjected to severe stress while being held at the TID. It was hoped to call for a psychiatrist’s report on his mental health and an order for another medical report on his condition. But the way the TID worked, it was avoided. A fundamental rights petition has also been filed against subjecting him to torture” the lawyer told the court.

Although the suspect poet should have been produced before the court under Section 7 (1) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the TID had produced him under Section 7 (2) of the Act and to avoid the Attorney General decision to release the poet if there are lack of evidence, the suspect had been produced under a different section, the lawyer added.

He also said that the suspect has been produced under another clause for prevention, and further pointed out that Ahnaf does not know where the Quran and his poems were kept while he was in the TID custody. He asked the court to keep the possessions safe.

The lawyers requested that if there is any evidence against the suspect a summary of all that evidence should be ordered to be produced before the court under the Code of Criminal Procedure and an order should be issued allowing the lawyers to meet the poet.

Accordingly, the Magistrate informed the prison to allow the lawyers to meet the poet. Attorneys-at-Law Sanjaya Wilson Karunaratne, Swastika Arulingam and PC Mr. Ilias appeared for the suspect poet.