Shakthika Sathkumara : Case of Sri Lankan author, poet and short story writer who faces on-going legal harassment and denied justice simply for his creative work

 

Shakthika Sathkumara:

Case of Sri Lankan author, poet and short story writer who faces on-going legal harassment and denied justice simply for his creative work

Mr Shakthika Sathkumara, age 37, is a former journalist, poet and award-winning fiction writer in Sri Lanka who continues to face legal harassment and threats of imprisonment simply because one of his works of fiction has been misinterpreted by Sinhala-Buddhist ultranationalist elements who enjoy disproportionately high political influence.

 

In reality, all that Mr Sathkumara has done is to write a short story! In doing so, he was exercising his right to freedom of expression, guaranteed to all citizens under Article 14 (1) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, and further guaranteed by international human rights conventions that the Government of Sri Lanka acceded to.

 

Yet, tragically, the Government of Sri Lanka has totally failed protect his rights as a citizen. Instead, the Government officials – the police and prosecutor (Attorney General) – have been irrationally and unfairly influenced by ethno-religious extremists belonging to the majority community.

 

On 1 April 2019, Mr Sathkumara was arbitrarily arrested by his local area police as part of a police investigation into a complaint by some Buddhist monks alleging that one of his short stories ‘incited religious hatred’ (against Buddhism). The short story concerned, titled ‘Ardha’ (‘Half’), had only appeared briefly on Mr Sathkumara’s Facebook page in February 2019 for two days before the writer voluntarily took it down. This work of fiction discussed life at an unnamed Buddhist temple; those who objected to the story claimed it had hinted at child sexual abuse by some monks, and thereby inciting ‘religious hatred’ against Buddhism.

 

The societal context for this comes from a growing number of media reports and credible allegations of physical abuse and/or sexual assault of young monks who are placed in the custody of senior monks at temples. Ordaining children as young as seven years of age is common in Sri Lanka. The allegations of abuse are not new, but it has long been treated as a ‘taboo’ subject that is now beginning to be discussed more openly due to social media. See, for example, this analysis appearing in a citizen journalism website in mid-2023:

https://groundviews.org/2023/05/09/betrayal-of-trust-child-abuse-by-buddhist-monks/

 

For simply having a passing refence in his work of fiction to child sexual abuse in temples, Mr Sathkumara was charged under Section 3(1) of ICCPR Act No 56 of 2007, as well as under Article 291 (B) of the British colonial era Penal Code of Sri Lanka. Both these are criminal charges, brought against a writer who had only written an imaginary short story! (Even though Sri Lanka does not have an explicit law against blasphemy, the above mentioned laws are being misused and ‘weaponized’ to serve the same purpose.)

 

Under pressure from Buddhist monks, he was arrested and needlessly kept in pre-trial detention for 127 days before being released on bail on 8 August 2019. There was absolutely no justification for detaining him while the police investigated the matter; he posed no flight risk. But those who petitioned police against him agitated for such detention – in an overcrowded provincial jail, lacking even basic facilities – to ‘make an example of him’ to anyone else questioning Buddhist orthodoxy in Sri Lanka.

 

While he was in detention, many activists, writers, artists, academics and other individuals and organizations in Sri Lankan and around the world called for his release and unconditional dropping of all charges against him. These included Amnesty International, which designated him as a Prisoner of Conscience; PEN International; CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance; and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

 

Notwithstanding such appeals, the case against Mr Sathkumara was dragged through the lower courts for another 18 months after him being released on bail. He was finally discharged by the local magistrate on 9 February 2021. This was after the Attorney General’s Department informed the court that the prosecutor had decided not to indict and prosecute Mr Sathkumara. (In reality, they could not make a case against him!).

 

During his detention of 127 days, and the ensuing 18-month period of what turned out to be a non-trial, Mr Sathkumara faced severe economic hardships as he was also suspended from his public sector administrative position on disciplinary grounds (according to Sri Lanka’s public sector rules, anyone who gets accused in a criminal case cannot continue in the job until charges are cleared). His wife – Ms Yanusha Lakmali, who is a published poet in her own right – and their two young children have faced much social castigation for being ‘anti-religious’ and ‘anti-Buddhist’. They have undergone prolonged mental agony, which cannot be quantified in financial terms.

 

His quest for belated justice continues.

 

·         In December 2019, the human rights focused non-profit entity Freedom Now submitted a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Sathkumara. In May 2020, the Working Group determined that his detention was indeed arbitrary and violated international human rights law.

 

·         In March 2021, Mr Sathkumara’s lawyers sent notices of action against the officer in charge of the (local area) Polgahawela Police, the police chief, and the Attorney General for a cause of action of malicious prosecution.

 

·         He has also filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging his arbitrary arrest and detention. After a long delay of pre-trial review, his case has finally been fixed for argument on 7 June 2024.

 

Given the serious delays in judicial proceedings in Sri Lanka, it is not clear how much longer Mr Sathkumara would have to wait for the conclusion of his FR case. (Some landmark FR cases have taken a decade or longer for judgments). The Attorney General and police – who are defendants in this case – are adept at intentionally delaying judicial proceedings when a  case is unfavourably against them.

 

Mr Sathkumara’s quest for justice is emblematic of the struggles faced by many other artistes, public intellectuals and social activists all of who are under unfair pressure from the increasing ‘saffronization’ of law enforcement in Sri Lanka, where the Sinhala-Buddhist majority are weaponizing laws of the land against ethno-religious minorities, as well as to stifle dissent and public discourse.

 

Support for him would therefore represent not only standing by a creative writer facing persecution, but also a way of signaling support for liberal, democratic values that Sri Lanka has long cherished – but is now in danger of being eroded.

 

Notes:

 

·         An English translation of the short story can be found at: http://www.jdslanka.org/index.php/analysisreviews/poetry-a-prose/903-shakthika-sathkumara-shortstory-ardha

 

·         How a human rights law became a tool of repression in Sri Lanka, Feb 2023: By Gehan Gunatilleke, attorney-at-law, and post-doctoral fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.