The mayor of the Canadian city of Brampton and Amnesty International have publicly condemned the arrest of 24-year-old Tamil hip hop artist Sangeethsan Ganeskumar — known by his stage name Hiphop Sangee — under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act, marking the first international political response to the case.
In a post on X, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown described the move as “a flagrant violation of free speech,” arguing that criminalising an artist for expressing his identity and sharing music undermined democratic values. He said successive Sri Lankan governments had repeatedly pledged to repeal the PTA but continued to “weaponize it to silence dissent.” Brown also pointed to the Tamil Genocide Monument in Brampton as a marker of why the arrest mattered to the Canadian Tamil diaspora, and called for Ganeskumar’s immediate release alongside the abolition of the PTA, Newswire reported.
Brown’s intervention followed an Amnesty International South Asia statement that criticised the legislation’s “overly broad provisions” and argued they were incompatible with international human rights standards. Citing Ganeskumar’s arrest on June 2 and his remand until June 17 over a performance authorities claim glorified the LTTE, Amnesty said the PTA’s vague offences did not align with international law and called for his release “unless he is promptly charged with an internationally recognisable offence in proceedings consistent with international fair trial standards.”
The artist was arrested by the Jaffna Divisional Criminal Investigation Bureau after editing and uploading four songs from a May 31 musical event in Chavakachcheri to his TikTok account. Police allege the recordings were intentionally modified to include LTTE-supportive content for wider online dissemination, and produced him before the Chavakachcheri Magistrate’s Court under Section 3(G) of the PTA. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala on Tuesday told Parliament that the Inspector General of Police had met the Attorney General to discuss the case, drawing a government line that LTTE promotion remained banned but remembrance of the war dead was permitted.
Amnesty’s statement also flagged due process concerns in other PTA cases, including the detention of former State Intelligence Service Chief Suresh Sallay in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings — a case where families and lawyers have alleged inhumane treatment in custody. The organisation said suspects must be brought to justice through strict adherence to due process and fair trial rights, while victims of the bombings deserved truth, justice, and reparations.
Amnesty called on Sri Lankan authorities to investigate allegations of PTA abuse, ensure full due process for all detainees, impose an immediate moratorium on use of the Act, and repeal the legislation without delay.
The dual response from Brampton — home to one of the largest Tamil diasporas in North America — and a leading international human rights organisation is the first cross-border political pressure on the case, layering on top of domestic criticism by SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa over selective use of the PTA and Sarvajana Balaya MP Dilith Jayaweera’s call for a national protest.
