Weaponising the PTA

Student activist Wasantha Mudalige was freed after five months of incarceration under the draconian anti-terrorism laws. The Colombo magistrate cleared the student leader of terrorism charges under which he was detained. 

The magistrate’s court also granted bail in the three remaining cases against him while stating that Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) had misused the PTA to file charges against him. He joins a long list of individuals who had been wrongfully detained under the PTA only to be released after months of incarceration.

Criminal Investigation Department former Director SSP Shani Abeysekara was thrown into prison for 11 months over what the Appeals Court called trumped up and fabricated charges. Human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah was denied bail for 22 long months after being charged under the PTA. The case against him has fallen apart to a comical level with the indictments being changed with “inciting communal disharmony” rather than terrorism.

Ahnaf Jazeem, a 26-year-old poet and teacher, was detained under the PTA for over a year without charges or any credible evidence being presented to a court. Denied fair trial, due process and unrestricted access to legal counsel, Ahnaf was detained in squalid conditions and there were allegations that the authorities have attempted to coerce him to make false confessions while under interrogation. 

Dozens of individuals arrested over the Easter Sunday attacks remain in custody without a proper judicial process for years. There are Tamil detainees who have been incarcerated for over 10 years without a charge or indictment.

While the release of some of those more ‘high profile’ detainees from incarceration is welcomed, after extensive lobbying and activism of many, they still have pending court procedures that are dragging for years. Even if exonerated after years of legal proceeding, they would have still been subjected to nothing short of torture, wrongful incarceration and often ruined lives. 

Yet, there is no legal remedy other than long protracted fundamental rights cases to demand some semblance of justice. There has not been a single case where an official had been held responsible for weaponising anti-terror laws.

It is also an indictment on the pathetic performance of the Attorney General’s Department that it has failed to prevail in any of these cases where the individuals had been initially charged under the PTA. Thus, the PTA is nothing but a political tool that can be arbitrarily used against political opponents by those with power. 

By incarcerating individuals for months or years on end, it instils fear on not only those who have been victims of the PTA but those who are potentially at risk of being victims of this draconian law.

This outdated law that has been abused for years has attracted international sanction and criticism for years. This week at the UN Human Rights Council, several countries severely criticised the continued use of the PTA during the Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka. The European Union has for years demanded that this draconian law be repealed for the continuation of GSP plus trade concessions.

Despite these overwhelming reasons for the repealing of the PTA, no government has made a genuine effort to do so because those in political office realise the value of weaponising the law. The PTA continues to be a tool for the State to terrorise its people. It is a reminder of the many struggles that are left to be fought in Sri Lanka’s freedom struggle, even 75 years after gaining independence from colonialism.