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Playwright Jeremy O. Harris has been released after spending three weeks in custody on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into Japan, The New York Times reports. He was released on Monday, December 8, according to a spokesman of the Tomishiro Police Station in Okinawa’s Tomigusuku City.
A representative for Harris said that he was released without charges, and that he will stay in Japan to write and do research for an upcoming project. Harris faced up to seven years in prison if he was found guilty under Japan’s strict drug laws.
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Jeremy O. Harris was arrested last month at an airport in Japan on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country.
On November 16, Harris was stopped at Naha Airport on Okinawa island after a customs officer discovered 0.78 grams of crystal containing MDMA in his bag. He was immedietly arrested on suspicion of violating Japan’s Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act. Harris remains in custody, and formal charging proceedings against Harris are set to begin.
Jeremy O. Harris is best known for his play Slave Play, which earned a record-breaking 12 Tony nominations in 2021.
Slave Play first debuted off-Broadway in 2018, making its Broadway debut at the John Golden Theatre in the fall of 2019. In addition to its Tony Award nominations, the play is the recipient of the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, and the 2018 Paula Vogel Award. The play was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Playwrighting Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Slave Play debuted in London’s West End in the fall of 2024 at the Noël Coward Theatre.
