Who needs the PTA?

“Not only our actions, but also our inactions, become our destiny.” Heinrich Zimmer (The King and the Corpse)

- BY TISARANEE GUNASEKARA.

Mohamad Suhail was arrested twice in one day, first under normal law, then under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The first ‘crime’ of this 21-year-old student was walking down the road outside the Chabad House in Dehiwala. The Chabad House (a religio-political-social institution belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement, a Jewish-fundamentalist sect — think of Bodu Bala Sena with way more brains and cash), reportedly an illegal construction, continues to thrive under the benign gaze of law enforcement officers. Yet the same law enforcement officers arrested Mr Suhail, a Lankan citizen, for being near a structure built to serve Israeli tourists.

Since Mr. Suhail’s real ‘crime’ would have earned them a magisterial reprimand, Dehiwala police accused him of not having an identity card. The magistrate refused to remand him and released him, pointing out that being in a public space without an identity card was no crime. Case closed. Or so it seemed.

Mr. Suhail went home to Mawanella with his father that evening. In the night, a team from the Dehiwala police went to his home and arrested him again under the PTA, effectively preventing the magistrate from giving him bail. His ‘crime’ this time was having anti-Israel posts on his social media.

That was 24 October 2024. He spent the next eight months and three weeks in remand prison. He would have vegetated behind bars for many more months, or even years, had not his incarceration made it to the news in June 2025, resulting in an outcry.

This week, the police informed the court that Mr. Suhail can be released on bail since he had committed no wrongdoing under the PTA. Incomprehensibly, despite this total lack of evidence, the case against him is to continue. Even harder to comprehend is the reason for his arrest. After all, being critical of Israel (or of any other country including Sri Lanka) is not a crime even under normal law let alone the PTA.