TOKYO — Outstanding American playwright and actor, Jeremy O. Harris, identified for his Tony-nominated “Slave Play,” was arrested in Japan on suspicion of smuggling the psychedelic drug ecstasy, officers stated Saturday.
Officers at Naha Airport on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa arrested Harris on Nov. 16 for an alleged violation of customs legislation for having 0.78 grams (0.0275 ounces ) of the crystalized drug, also referred to as MDMA, in a container in a tote bag he was carrying, in line with Okinawa Regional Customs spokesperson Tatsunori Fukuda.
Harris, 36, had left London’s Heathrow Airport two days earlier and transited in Taiwan’s Taoyuan Worldwide Airport earlier than arriving in Naha for sightseeing, Fukuda stated. Okinawa is a well-liked resort vacation spot with delicate climate all year long.
Fukuda stated Harris was arrested on the spot and brought into custody by the Tomishiro police, which filed a prison criticism to the Naha District Prosecutors’ Workplace Thursday for additional investigation and doable indictment.
Japanese authorities didn’t discover another medicine in his baggage and imagine the MDMA was for his private use. They’re nonetheless investigating, Fukuda stated, whereas including that whether or not Harris made any touch upon the case couldn’t be launched.
There was no quick remark from Harris’ representatives.
Japanese prison procedures permit investigators to maintain a suspect in custody for as much as 23 days earlier than indictment, and pretrial detention will be extended if the accused workouts their proper of silence or denies the fees, a observe broadly criticized as “hostage justice.”
These convicted of drug smuggling in Japan can face a multiyear jail time period.
Harris burst onto the humanities scene with “Slave Play,” written whereas he was nonetheless a graduate pupil on the Yale College of Drama. It premiered off-Broadway in 2018, inciting controversy and even a petition to close down the manufacturing with its provocative mixture of race, class and sexual taboos. It moved to Broadway the next yr, incomes a Tony nomination for finest play, however didn’t win an award.
Along with small appearing roles, he’s cameoed as himself on a rebooted “Gossip Woman” and served as a coproducer on a number of episodes of HBO’s hit collection “Euphoria.”
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Related Press author Mallika Sen in New York contributed to this report.
