LTTE extortion case - Dutch Court judgement on October 7

by Manjula FERNANDO

The judgement in the case heard in a Dutch Court against five LTTE suspects accused of extorting money for the terror outfit, will be delivered on October 7.

“The Justice authorities in The Netherlands are confident that they could win the case,” a spokesperson for the Sri Lankan mission in Belgium told the Sunday Observer .

The investigations codenamed Koninck were initiated by law enforcement authorities in The Netherlands and the five suspects are being prosecuted for being members of a terror outfit apart from other charges.

Defence lawyer Victor Koppe who is also watching the interests of the LTTE in a separate case filed by him to get the group delisted from EU’s designated organisations, argued that the LTTE members were ‘freedom fighters’.

It is reported that based on his submissions the court will decide if the LTTE is a terror outfit or freedom fighters.

He submitted that the suspects were collecting funds for the victims of those fighting and drew parallels with the Libyan rebels who battled to oust Qaddafi and received support from the international community, the Associated Press reported from The Hague.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lanka mission in Belgium said the State has not intervened in this case since it was filed by law enforcement authorities of The Netherlands who arrested the suspects on charges of extortion and supporting a terror outfit.

A team of investigating officers from The Netherlands arrived in Sri Lanka and interrogated several LTTE suspects whoever in detention here in connection with the case. Norway based Perinpanayagam Sivaparan, one of the top leaders of the LTTE’s international network was also interrogated as part of the investigations.

A Foreign Ministry official said it will be hard to draw any parallels between the LTTE and the Libyan rebels because the Libyans never used LTTE terror tactics such as suicide bombings, civilian massacres and assassinations of State leaders.

On September 16 the Channel 4 video was screened in the Court room with another video ‘My Daughter the Terrorist’. This second video had been screened previously in The Netherlands and was found in a defendant’s house. The spokesperson from Belgium said the video had been screened to establish the link between the LTTE and the fronts in The Netherlands and to establish the connection with the defendants with the LTTE.