Comedian and YouTube Content Creator Arrested in Sri Lanka Over Satire on Buddhism goodmenproject.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goodmenproject.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Super Deluxe/Twitter, https://twitter.com/sachp Poet Ahnaf Jazeem was arrested on 16 May 2020 under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act for publishing a Tamil-language poetry anthology which authorities said promote extremism.
This statement was originally published on pen-international.org on 16 May 2021.
We, the undersigned organisations, are deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of poet and teacher, Ahnaf Jazeem, who has now been detained for a year without charge. We call on the Sri Lankan authorities to immediately release Ahnaf Jazeem, or promptly charge him with internationally recognizable criminal offences and try him in accordance with international fair trial standards.
Sri Lanka: Joint Statement Calls for Immediate Release of Poet Detained for a Year Without Charge hrw.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hrw.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Human Rights Watch
We, the undersigned organisations, are deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of poet and teacher, Ahnaf Jazeem, who has now been detained for a year without charge. We call on the Sri Lankan authorities to immediately release Ahnaf Jazeem, or promptly charge him with internationally recognizable criminal offences and try him in accordance with international fair trial standards.
Ahnaf Jazeem (pen name, Mannaramuthu Ahnaf) is a 26-year-old poet and teacher who was arrested on 16 May 2020 under Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The arrest was in connection to a Tamil-language poetry anthology called Navarasam (நவரசம்), which he wrote and published in July 2017, as well as other unsubstantiated claims of exposing his students to ‘extremist’ content with the intention of turning them into followers of ‘extremist ideology’. His arrest comes against a backdrop of increased marginalisation and discrimination targeting