Addressing a canvassing rally in Eastern Province, president Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that the Muslim youth has not committed any criminal offense.
This is despite the fact that he has been subjected to a detention for 90 days by the president, without being presented before a Court, after being arrested for pasting an anti-war sticker.
“That youth hasn’t committed any crime, nor linked to any criminal organization,” triangular statements from the president, prime minister and the government spokesperson said.
17 days after the detention order the president himself signed, this is how Rusdi’s wrong was made right by president Dissanayake, in front of the Muslim community in Sammanthurai on the 11th April.
“That young man was self-motivated. We arrested him. We examined everything about him,” the President said, giving an appraisal of character regarding the young man.
“We showed that young man to those parents. The parents were grateful. For saving the child from that disaster. Is this wrong? Is that wrong?” He became emotional, putting his hands forward.
“That’s a blatant lie. Our mother and father never thanked the president. We haven’t met anyone from the government, let alone thanking the president or anyone” says Rusdi’s elder brother, Mohamed Nazim.
Nasim said this in response to an inquiry we made over the truthfulness of the President’s statement in Sammanthurai.
“Why is the president lying like this? Why should we thank the government or the police? By doing so, we are admitting that our brother was wrong, isn’t that so? Younger brother didn’t do anything wrong. So why shall we thank the President or the police for saving him?” Nazim said firmly, asking “How can the President lie like this in public, when we have never met anyone from the government?”
Just after twenty-four hours passed since president Dissanayake had stated such a large lie, on an election platform in the Silawathura area of Mannar, the prime minister who is second only to the president in the state hierarchy of Sri Lanka, said in a threatening tone mixed with mockery:
“Now there are no faults with us for those guys to find out. That’s why they are trying to grab one thing or the other and trying to show those as big topics to the country. The current topic is the arrest of a 22 year old Muslim youth under the PTA.”
The double standards of the NPP government, which imprisoned an innocent man for a crime that he did not commit, do not end there. In response to SJB MP Mujibur Rahman, commenting in parliament on 10th of April during the Batalanda debate, the official government spokesperson, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, said the following.
“We have not arrested anyone for expressing support for Palestine or for pasting a sticker. We want to ensure national security, not to arrest this one or that one. Investigations are going on.”
This is how the Chairman of the Palestine-Sri Lanka Solidarity Movement justified before Parliament, the imprisonment of an innocent 22 year old youth without any charges, in order to satisfy the whims and fancies of the police and political authorities in the name of national security.
The bizarre press releases and detention orders of the Sri Lankan Police
Although at the aforementioned political rally the president called Mohammed Liauddin Mohammed Rusdi a ‘self-motivated person’ for pasting a sticker protesting the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians by Israel, the detention order he issued on 25th March as Minister of Defense contains a series of frightening words far from those political speeches.
“Associating with members of extremist or terrorist organizations, motivated by extremist ideologies and acting in a manner that is detrimental to peace and harmony among communities, and knowingly concealing such information from security forces,” reads the detention order MOD/LEG/PTA/21/25, printed in English and signed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The police says a different story after arresting Rusdi
Rusdi was arrested on 22nd March. The police media division issues the statement 8 days later, on 30th March. The information provided by the CTID might have been the basis for the press release. In that case, they must have found out everything about Rusdi within 8 days. A preliminary investigation must have been carried out. Otherwise, Rusdi must have revealed everything to the CTID within 8 days. But there is something we must not forget.
Rusdi did not went into hiding after pasting the sticker on a garbage bin. He stuck it in a public place where many people hang out. Even after pasting the sticker, he had reported to work as usual. He pasted the sticker on the 19th and went to work on the 20th, but stayed home on the 21st which was a Friday, because he had a day off as a Muslim, and not with the intention of hiding. He reported to work as usual on Saturday the 22nd, feeling that he had not committed any wrongdoing or crime, to hide.
An IGP, who the Attorney General’s Department itself accuses in court of being a murderer, an advocate of a murder, and an organized criminal, was playing games with the police for weeks, but Rusdi did not do so. Therefore, the CTID officers did not have to struggle to catch him as they would for a major criminal.
Rusdi has told CTID officials that out of shock and pain over the killings in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, he put up such a sticker. If Rusdi says so, what religious extremism or terrorist leanings does CTID have? It is a false scapegoat created by them as usual.
“The suspect’s actions are being investigated at length and, based on the facts revealed therein, it has been observed that he is a person who has been subjected to some psychological motivation due to using the internet and other methods, and therefore, further investigations are underway into his susceptibility to commit a religious extremist act based on that mental state,” the police media statement said.
Throughout the arrest and detention of young Rusdi, the conduct of the police was characterized by a pattern of lawlessness, threats, intimidation, and unlawful interference. They used every possible means to extract a confession and ‘admit guilt’ by intimidation.
The political authorities, along with the police, had acted with such a lack of class that they used intimidation towards Rusdi and even his 13-year-old little sister.
Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division (CTID) and the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD), which have been credibly accused of torture and assassinations as well as organized crimes, and have a notorious history of illegal operations, are the ones who primarily lead this menacing operation also.
Threats to keep the arrest a secret
“On the 24th morning, TID has phoned home and threatened that if we talk to anyone outside or leaked information to the media about this incident, they would put charges in a way that my younger brother would be locked up and never be able to come out again” said Mohamed Nazim, the elder brother of Mohamed Rusdi.
This is how the threats first began to unfold.
He says that officers from the Counter-Terrorism Department kept his brother in front of the parents and made him pressurize his mother and father not to talk about this with anyone outside.
“On 23rd morning, our mother and father were asked to come to the TID to give a statement. When they did, my brother had cried and told them, not tell anyone about him. Not to tell the newspapers anything. If that happens, they will not release him and put him in jail.’ Later that same evening, my mother had met Muhij Jeeraam, a human rights activist and told the story. He showed what my mother was saying on Facebook Live at the same time. Then, early the next morning, TID called my house and threatened that if it was not removed from Facebook, they would never release my brother and put him in jail.”
On the same day, a group of Counter Terrorism and Investigation Division officers who had come to the house with Rusdi’s parents had searched the house for stickers and then took away Rusdi’s old computer equipment, saying that they were for further investigations. Rusdi’s brother said that along with the computer equipment, the Counter Terrorism and Investigation Division officers also took away a sword which was there at the house for more than 10 years.
Mohamed Nazim also said that due to the strong request from the parents, he had spoken to Muhij Jiram and taken down his mother’s statement from the internet.
Endless intimidation
The CTID wanted to keep Rusdi in secret. Within days of Rusdi’s arrest, the CTID had told his mother to write a letter declaring that her son has committed wrongdoings and that he is a person with extremist views. They had threatened to keep Rusdi in detention, unless she obeyed their request.
“Mother was very scared. She agreed to give such a letter, thinking that it would free my brother,” said Rusdi’s brother.
Not only the letter was written by using illegal force, but it was also obtained illegally. By force. The officers had initially phoned Rusdi’s mother and told her to bring the letter to the Nittambuwa bus stand. After the mother went to the bus stand, she was told to come to the Thilakawardana clothing store in Nittambuwa town. Accordingly, she went there and handed over the letter, but she was not given an opportunity to see her son.
Pressure on young kids
One day, while Rusdi was in custody, his father received a phone call asking him to bring his 13-year-old daughter, Rusdi’s younger sister, to the CTID for investigations.
“My father was with a lawyer when he received a call asking to bring the sister to TID. That lawyer has also heard the story. He knows about this incident,” said Rusdi’s brother. This should be the national security that Minister Nalinda Jayatissa proudly stated in the Parliament. It is really nice thing to summon minors to the counter-terrorism units.
While officers from the CTID were threatening Rusdi’s parents not to tell anyone about him, the officers from the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) had begun hunting down protesters who were demanding Rusdi’s release.
A group from the Colombo Crimes Division has forcibly taken away a person who organized a protest involving civil society and political activists demanding the release of Rusdi, questioning him about the ‘mastermind behind the sticker incident’.
Member of the Sri Lanka Parliament, Mujibur Rahman, who actively contributed to the protest, says that a team of officers from the Colombo Crimes Division ransacked the man’s house in search of the stickers.
“That man was kept in the CCD for more than three hours and questioned about the stickers. He was harassed terribly. Then his wife’s father has also been taken into custody. He was also questioned,” said the opposition MP.
Three-month detention for a sticker
Rusdi’s mother and father, who visited on the 23rd March at the request of the CTID, a day after Rusdi’s arrest, were told by CTID officials that they had obtained a three-month detention order to keep Rusdi in custody.
“The TID people has told my mother and father that there was no point in doing anything now, because they had orders to detain him for three months and interrogate him,” Rusdi’s brother said.
However, according to our observations, we learned that the Counter Terrorism and Investigation Division did not have a detention order with them at that time. Not only was a copy of the so-called detention order not given to Rusdi’s parents, but the President, as the Minister of Defense, issued his order a few days later. The detention order was signed by Anura Kumara Dissanayake on 25th March 2025. The simple meaning is that Rusdi, who was arrested by the CTID on the 22nd, had been taken under detention three days later, on 25th March. In that case, the CTID had detained Rusdi without bringing him before any court even after 72 hours had passed. It is an illegal act. Not only the CTID but also the police chief and legal authorities, should explain under what law a person was detained for 72 hours. This is three days, without being brought before a court.
Rusdi has not made any attempts to conceal his protest from the security forces.
“My brother has cried in front of our parents and the TID people saying that he cannot bear the pain he feels for the little children and people being killed in the Gaza Strip. He has also said that due to that pain he put up a sticker to protest those crimes,” Rusdi’s brother Nazim said with emotion.
“I can’t stand it. Those guys are killing people. They’re killing little children. That’s why I put the sticker.” Those were the heartbreaking words of a youth who was detained to three months by the CTID for being misled by religious extremism and terrorist sentiments.
The masterminds who were being always searched by imprisoning innocent people
Although young Rusdi had the courage to take ownership of his actions and face the punishment of the police state led by the executive, the Counter-Terrorism Department officers were not satisfied with his statement alone, perhaps because of their unwillingness to easily abandon their ‘easy catch’.
“Who is behind you, who gave you the stickers, who told you to do this?” the counter-terrorism officers had repeatedly threatened Rusdi, keeping him in front of his parents.
We have seen many such incidents in the recent past. One of the main cases was the chain of events that took place, followed by the arrest of the Muslim poet, Ahnaf Jasim. The counter-terrorism officers also followed an extremely harsh and illegal approach in the case of Ahnaf also. He was kept in custody for months, with dozens of different charges that could never be proved. In connection with each of those charges, he was forced to reveal alleged masterminds, and Ahnaf was forced to remain under detention orders without being released on behalf of said masterminds, whose identities were only known to the gentlemen at the counter-terrorism department. Although Ahnaf was finally released by the court, dismissing all those charges, he is not free from the physical and mental torture he suffered while in custody.
Lawyer Hejaz Hizbullah suffered a similar fate. Arrested in a highly fraudulent manner, he was held without bail for months on various charges. He was subjected to severe mental torture, forcing him to reveal the mastermind behind him. The overwhelming majority of Sinhala Buddhists in the legal community he represents, sided not with him but with the Counter Terrorism Department.
Today, Mohammed Rusdi also had to experience the bitter truth that Ahnaf Jasim, lawyer Hejaz Hizbullah, and other Muslim and Tamil people had to experience back then.
Labeled as mentally ill and imprisoned
It is not only the police who are eager to portray Rusdi’s shock at the Israelis killing of people, including children, in the Gaza Strip as the result of a mental breakdown. The country’s executive president is also publicly expressing this opinion, without any accepted medical conclusion or investigation.
“That young man was under psychological motivation,” the President said at a public political rally.
Where motivation went wrong
But there is a mistake which was done by the Executive President but also by the counter-terrorism authorities as well. That is, the police have acted in a way that contradicts what they themselves have said in detaining Rusdi. It would be good if the police could explain how and under what law, a mentally unstable person could be detained for 90 days. If the police do not understand how to explain it, it is the responsibility of President Anura Kumara to explain it publicly using versatile words.
Police spokesperson SSP Buddhika Manatunga had said that medical recommendations regarding Rusdi’s mental condition had been obtained from the Ulema Council. “It was presented to the Ulema Council. The Ulema Council said that he should be rehabilitated because he has a condition that is not typical for a normal Muslim,” the police spokesperson had told the media.
There are several serious issues hidden behind the statement of the police media spokesperson. The first is how a person who is suffering from a mental disorder or imbalance, as the police themselves say, was subjected to a 90-day detention without being brought to a specialist doctor by court orders to receive the necessary medical treatment. If someone is suffering from a mental disorder, is there anything more inhumane than imprisoning that person without presenting him for medical treatment?
Did Anura Kumara Dissanayake detained a person suffering from depression, as being stated by the Police themselves, while boasting for “a rich country – a beautiful life.”
Sections 376(1) and (2) of Chapter XXXI of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act No. 15 of 1979 of Sri Lanka clearly state how a person in such a situation should be dealt with, and the legal provisions for that.
But that’s not the real problem. It’s the lie being spread by the police and the political establishment, led by the executive, that Rusdi was psychologically motivated. It’s an attempt to undermine Rusdi’s good work and portray him as someone who is bent on causing great destruction due to being exposed to extremist sentiments from someone. That’s a terrible pretext.
“Who is the Ulema Council? The court? If the police have facts, they should present them to the court. How many people arrested for the Easter attacks are still in the custody without even being charged? Did the police ask the Ulema Council about them?”
MP Mujibur Rahuman, who is also a Muslim devotee, asked this insistently.
However, a day or two after the irresponsible statement of the police media spokesperson, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) told that they had not stated such a thing to the police. Instead, the council had inquired about the allegations against the youth in question. If the statement of the ACJU is true, why did the police fabricate such a lie? Are senior police officers as well as Muslim politicians in the government ready to ‘do something’ about the lies of the police media division?
According to reliable information we have uncovered, after all this, the Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division has attempted to take Rusdi to psychiatrists on several occasions and forcibly obtain medical certificates. For whatever reason, this has failed, destroying the last trump card of the counter-terrorism authorities.
The following is the note posted on social media by Amnesty International regarding the detention order against Rusdi:
“We are disappointed to see the PTA in regular use by authorities under Sri Lanka’s new leadership, despite the Government’s pledges that it would repeal this draconian law,” “Two weeks since the arrest, Sri Lankan authorities have been unable to furnish any evidence of criminal wrongdoing legitimizing his arrest or continued detention.”
We must understand that the Terrorism Act itself is a criminal offense. There are no exceptions to it. There is nothing that can match its oppressive and immoral provisions. There is no substitute. This oppressive Act cannot be polished or whitewashed by setting up committees, government after government.”
Among the many parties that have filed Fundamental Rights Petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the final amendment to the Terrorism Act brought to the fore during the previous government’s tenure are the then JVP MP and current Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath and the then Inter-Company Employees’ Union convener and current Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe. Yet all of them have subjected a youth who affixed a sticker in support of the value of human lives to a three-month detention under the same Act.
Where Rusdi is being held?
Rusdi was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division. A team from the same division comes to search his house. It is the same division that threatens the parents not to hold any discussions with outside parties and not to make statements to the media in order to reveal that Rusdi is in their custody in order to get him released. According to Rusdi’s brother, the parents also go to the Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division to see Rusdi. Based on all this, Rusdi should be in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division. The police media spokesperson had also confirmed this to the media. However, the detention order signed and issued by the President as the Minister of Defense states that as the Criminal Investigation Department. Administratively, even though the CID and the CTID are maintained in the same building, where exactly is a person being detained? The relatives of the detained person have the right to know under which officer’s authority the accused is being held. It is a legal right that cannot be denied. That right is also valid under the Counter-Terrorism Act. The same illegal process has been going on throughout history. The politicians of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna should have more experience in this regard, rather than us. It is impossible to forget how the relatives of their associates visited camp by camp, police station by police station, searching for their loved ones, a few decades ago.
Let us hope that the government led by the President has not forgotten the fact that hundreds of thousands of Tamils in the North, East and South spent days and nights in camps, police stations and prisons across the country searching for their relatives who were arrested. At that time, the people who waited for days at the Counter-Terrorism Division were finally chased away, saying that we did not have anyone like that. The situation in the torture camps across the country in the late 80s was no different. We would like to remind you that the situation was the same at that time at the Batalanda torture center, which the present government is currently playing with. So why did the defense minister sign an order to detain Rusdi under the Criminal Investigation Department, who was told of being held in the Counter-Terrorism Division? Was Rusdi actually being held in the CTID? Or at the CID? At the Colombo Police Devision, in another police station or somewhere else? If Rusdi’s parents had to wander from institution to institution without knowing it properly, who will take responsibility for that?
Complaints made to the Human Rights Commission
Rusdi’s mother had submitted a letter to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on the 3rd April, against the arrest and detention of her son on absurd charges.
“We strongly believe that the detention of my son is wrong and there is a fear that the authorities have attempted to frame false charges against him. His situation is very distressing to our family. We respectfully request the Human Rights Commission to intervene for his immediate release,” the letter addressed to the Chairman of the Commission and Commissioner Dr. Gehan Gunathilaka stated.
She has also requested the Commission to send a representative of the Commission to the place where her son is being held to investigate his condition.
“To date, the police have not told us the charges against him specifically, nor have they provided any explanation for his detention,” her letter emphasized.
When inquired from a high-ranking official of the commission about the matter, it was said that a formal investigation will be conducted in the future.
After independence
After all this drama, on the 7th April, the counter-terrorism officers had produced Rusdi before the Attanagalla Magistrate in a much hurry. The Magistrate had then taken steps to release Rusdi under a number of bail conditions. However, Rusdi was produced before the court without any charge sheet or evidence. If the charges are not being presented, the next step should be to release the suspect without charge, not to grant him bail. But the surprising situation is that the court has subjected Rusdi to a number of bail conditions, who was presented to the court without any charge and at least without a proper case number for the case to be heard in the court in the future.
The main bail conditions are appearing at the Counter-Terrorism and Investigation Division every Sunday, obtaining proper permission from that division if he intends to travel abroad, etc. The authorities who are supposed to protect the law should have thought twice about whether a twenty-two-year-old youth who has not been charged with any crime could be subjected to such an punishment.
Job lost
Finally, Rusdi is the one who had to pay the price for all these slanders, absurd accusations and fabricated scapegoat stories. When he returned home, after being released on bail without a case over a crime which he did not commit, he had been fired from his job, even in violation of the mere legal norms regarding employee rights. The national security that the rulers preach is so strong. Although he has done nothing wrong, today Rusdi is considered by the majority of Sri Lankans to be a ‘psychopathic extremist Muslim terrorist’.
(K. Wijesinghe)
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