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SJB urges immediate PTA amendment 

09 Dec 2021

BY Pamodi Waravita  Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition MP Eran Wickramaratne stressed the necessity of immediately amending the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 (PTA), following the Attorney General (AG), stating that he has no objections to Muslim poet Ahnaf Jazeem filing a bail application, after being held for 18 months under the PTA.  “The PTA is being used to silence and jail opponents of the authorities. Jazeem – only 25-years-old and a poet and a teacher – was kept in jail for 18 months. But now the AG has said that he has no objection to an application for bail being filed. Politician Azath Salley was recently released after he was held in prison for nine months under the PTA. It is now 605 days since Attorney Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested under the PTA, to serve the needs of the authorities. Many like this are arrested without evidence under the PTA,” said Wickramaratne in Parliament yesterday (9).  Thus, he emphasised the need to immediately amend the PTA, noting that it was only meant to be a “temporary law.”  “Amendments should include reducing the time a person can be held under the PTA, after their arrest. Lawyers must be assured of their attorney-client privilege and that they can meet their clients. This Government must stop misusing this Law and putting innocent people in jail,” he said.  On 8 December, Additional Solicitor General, President’s Counsel Nerin Pulle informed the Supreme Court that the AG is not objecting to bail being granted for Jazeem when the case is called on 15 December in the Puttalam High Court.  Jazeem was arrested in connection to his Tamil language poetry anthology titled Navarasam (Nine Emotions) which the authorities have alleged promotes extremist ideology. However, various quarters have since questioned these allegations, 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 organizations, including Amnesty International have condemned this arbitrary arrest and called for the poet’s immediate release. Jazeem’s mother has also submitted a written representation to the Advisory Board of the PTA for his immediate release. Calls to repeal the PTA have been growing with the European Union (EU) Parliament passing a Resolution this year requesting Sri Lanka to immediately repeal the PTA and for the EU Council to consider the temporary withdrawal of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade concession from Sri Lanka if it is not done.


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