Sri Lanka, June 10 -- The arrest of 24-year-old Tamil hip hop artist Sangeethsan Ganeskumar under Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act undermines democratic values and represents a flagrant violation of free speech. Patrick Brown, Mayor of Brampton, Canada, raised this alarm in a post on X, stressing that criminalising an artist for expressing identity and sharing music is unacceptable.

Successive Sri Lankan governments repeatedly pledged to repeal the PTA, but continue to weaponise it to silence dissent. Since the height of the Tamil genocide in 2009, Tamils still live under intense military surveillance and systemic oppression, with this arrest highlighting the importance of remembrance projects such as the Tamil Genocide Monument i...