Tamil man arrested after sharing photograph of LTTE leader on Facebook

by Gaya
Jul 6, 2021

Photograph courtesy of JDS Lanka

Sri Lankan police arrested a young Tamil man from Trincomalee under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on Friday after he shared a photo of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Facebook.

24-year-old Shanmugarasa Vidulashan was arrested after a photo which was originally posted in 2018, appeared on the Facebook timeline automatically as a ‘memory’, according to Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka. Vidulashan is to be remanded until July 17. 

This is the latest in a string of arrests by the Sri Lankan state as it continues to use the notorious PTA disproportionately on Tamils and Muslims over trumped up charges.  

TNA parliamentarian, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, criticised the Sri Lankan government last month for arresting over 100 Tamil youngsters in the past year for allegedly “posting propaganda on social media” and demanded their immediate release.

Ahead of the GSP+ review later this year,  the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the European Union (EU) to withdraw preferential access to its markets, until Sri Lankan complied with its commitments, such as repealing the PTA. 

 

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button