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Muslim poet granted bail but not released yet 

15 Dec 2021

BY Pamodi Waravita Although poet Ahnaf Jazeem was granted bail by the Puttalam High Court (HC) yesterday (15), he is yet to be released as Colombo Remand Prison officials had requested a confirmation from the Puttalam HC Registrar as to whether the Puttalam HC’s proceedings on Jazeem are related to the Colombo Magistrate Court’s (MC) proceedings about the poet. Jazeem was arrested in connection to his Tamil language poetry anthology, titled Navarasam (Nine Emotions) which the authorities have alleged promotes “extremist” ideology. “Jazeem was not released today (15) by officials of the Colombo Remand Prison because they wanted a confirmation from the Puttalam HC Registrar that the Puttalam HC case is connected to the Colombo MC case against Jazeem, which had been concluded on 26 October. However, the Puttalam HC Registrar refused to do that because the Colombo MC original brief was not available in the Puttalam HC indictment docket. Thus, Jazeem was not released from Prison yesterday on technical issues raised by the prison officials. They are supposed to release Jazeem immediately because there is no Colombo MC case against him, which they said they are unaware of, and as the Puttalam HC has granted bail. So, they are supposed to get a confirmation from the Colombo MC (Number Eight) tomorrow (16) whether Jazeem is needed for that matter. We hope to file a motion today to ensure his release as he has now been granted bail,” Jazeem’s legal counsel Sanjaya Wilson Jayasekera told The Morning yesterday. Jazeem was granted bail yesterday on three surety bail counts of Rs. 500,000 each (Rs. 1.5 million), and on the condition that he report to the Puttalam Criminal Investigations Department (CID) every first and last Sunday of the month. The court had further requested an affidavit that Jazeem does not own a passport, and had instructed the Immigration and Emigration Department to not issue a passport to him. Furthermore, the court has informed Jazeem that he can only change his official residence after informing the court. The matter has been fixed for 6 January. Various quarters have questioned the allegations against Jazeem, pointing out that translations of his work show the exact opposite, where his poems are explicitly against war and violence. A number of local and international organisations, including Amnesty International, have condemned this arbitrary arrest and called for the poet’s immediate release. Jazeem’s legal counsel and family have also claimed that Jazeem was subjected to torture whilst being held at the Terrorism Investigation Division, including being handcuffed to a table for several days. Ramalingam Ranjan and S. Devapalan also represented Jazeem as his legal counsel.

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