{"id":5660,"date":"2019-03-06T11:26:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T11:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/?p=5660"},"modified":"2019-03-06T11:29:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T11:29:11","slug":"tamil-musician-and-another-youth-carrying-red-flag-with-tiger-emblem-taken-off-geneva-bound-flight-at-heathrow-airport-and-taken-for-questioning-to-metropolitan-polices-counter-terrorism-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/tamil-musician-and-another-youth-carrying-red-flag-with-tiger-emblem-taken-off-geneva-bound-flight-at-heathrow-airport-and-taken-for-questioning-to-metropolitan-polices-counter-terrorism-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamil Musician and another youth carrying Red Flag with Tiger Emblem taken off Geneva bound flight at Heathrow Airport and taken for questioning to Metropolitan Police\u2019s Counter-terrorism Headquarters in Earl\u2019s Court in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

COUNTER-TERRORISM police arrested a Tamil musician at Heathrow airport hours before he was due to perform at a UN summit in Switzerland.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vakeesan Thangavel, 36, was surrounded by armed police on Monday morning after he boarded a flight bound for Geneva.<\/p>\n

Officers allegedly shouted: \u201cYou are attempting terrorism! You have got a flag!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Thangavel had a red Tamil national flag in his baggage, which police sometimes confuse with the banned Tamil Tiger logo.<\/p>\n

Officers hauled Mr Thangavel and a friend off the flight at 6.20am and questioned both men under the Terrorism Act 2000.<\/p>\n

The pair were later taken to the Metropolitan Police\u2019s counter-terrorism headquarters in Earl\u2019s Court.<\/p>\n

Then at 5pm dozens of police officers raided Mr Thangavel\u2019s home and seized his laptop, USBs, documents and clothing.<\/p>\n

The men were eventually released on bail around 11pm on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Mr Thangavel is a member of the Tamil drumming group Parai Voice of Freedom and was travelling to Geneva to perform at a protest outside the UN Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n

The UN summit is currently reviewing a catalogue of war crimes committed against Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan forces at the end of the country\u2019s conflict in 2009.<\/p>\n

Mr Thangavel told the Morning Star he was \u201cvery afraid\u201d and \u201cnot sleeping\u201d because of the experience.<\/p>\n

Police have confiscated his travel documents and he fears he will now have to cancel his wedding, which is scheduled to take place abroad later this month.<\/p>\n

His arrest comes just days after it emerged that the Sri Lankan embassy in London was actively spying on Tamil protesters.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Westminster magistrates\u2019 court heard evidence that the Sri Lankan military attache in London was ordered to \u201cplan and execute appropriate strategies to counter\u201d any protests against the Sri Lankan government.<\/p>\n

The same official was under orders to \u201ckeep close contacts with \u2026 New Scotland Yard; Counter Terrorism Command.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last October, four Tamil activists was arrested and detained by anti-terror police.<\/p>\n

They were seized by Thames Valley Police after protesting against a visit by Sri Lanka\u2019s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Oxford Union.<\/p>\n

One of the suspects was Sockalingam Yogalingam, an elected member of the exiled Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, who was charged with \u201cbelonging to a proscribed organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

His home was searched by seven officers from the South East Counter Terrorism Unit who seized paperwork and electronics.<\/p>\n

He recently told the Morning Star that his case had still not been resolved.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police said enquiries into Mr Thangavel continue. He has not been charged with any offence.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: https:\/\/morningstaronline.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COUNTER-TERRORISM police arrested a Tamil musician at Heathrow airport hours before he was due…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-srilankan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}