‘The Half': The Muffled Story Of Shakthika Sathkumara

It is impossible to be truly artistic without the risk of offending someone somewhere.”

- Wayne Gerard Trotman

Shakthika Sathkumara was acquitted and released by the Magistrate’s Court of Polgahawela last week, as the Attorney General, at long last, informed court that the AG did not wish to pursue the case against the award-winning fiction writer who had been arrested in April 2019 under the ICCPR Act.

Shakthika was said to have violated Article 3 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act, No. 56 of 2007 ( ICCPR Act) based on ‘a complaint’ made by some monks who had alleged that the creative writer had incited religious hatred and defamed Buddhism by his short story ‘’Ardha’’ (Half ). He was in remand custody for 130 days before getting bail from the High Court of Kurunegala in September 2019. The arrest took place during the time of the Yahapalana regime, which came to power guaranteeing all constitutional rights to citizens including that of freedom of speech.

HEAT IS ON AT THE HRC

Immediately after he was arrested by the Polgahawela Police arbitrarily, unfairly and illegally on April 1, 2019, local and international media reported on the arrest and many national and international media and civil rights groups expressed their utter dismay over the arbitrary arrest and detention of the writer, urging his release. Yet it was with much effort that Shakthika’s lawyers managed to even obtain bail. Many believe that the dropping of the case at this juncture as being one among many a last-ditch effort the present government is scrambling to as a means of turning down the heat that is mounting with the Human Rights Council’s meeting on Sri Lanka that is coming up in a few days’ time.