Ahnaf secretly produced in court after being detained for a year!

Poet Ahnaf Jazeem, who was detained for a year by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), has been produced before court and remanded, said his lawyer Sanjaya Wilson Jayasekara.

The lawyer told MediaLK that he nor Ahnaf’s family were informed about the court hearing. Therefore, he said, he lost the opportunity to appear in court on his behalf.

Ahnaf was arrested on May 16th, 2020 by the Terrorism Prevention Division. He has been in custody for a year since then and was produced in court on 12th May.

The CID had found two books of poetry called ‘Navarasam’ authored by Ahnaf at a place in Puttalam which is said to belong to a company called ‘Save the Pearl’. The young poet, a resident of Mannar, was also arrested on allegations that he was spreading extremist ideologies through his work.

Senior writers and critics have argued that the book is not extremist in nature. Ahnaf was later forced to testify against lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah who was also imprisoned. His relatives say he had to be treated for a rat bite that occurred while in police custody.

Various organizations have held various programs and discussions in the recent past demanding the immediate release of the young poet. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has also launched an investigation into his arrest.

Wilson, his lawyer, also commented on the investigation units taking action to produce Ahnaf before the court in secret.

Ahnaf was produced before the Colombo 8 Magistrate’s Court on the 12th without the knowledge of anyone. He was brought to Colombo on the 11th from the Tangalle detention center. This is a deliberate move to prevent a lawyer from appearing for Ahnaf. He was charged under Section 7 (2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

He was charged in the same manner in the previous B report. Bail cannot be granted until the case is heard in the High Court. However, we still do not know whether the charges have changed from the original B report.