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Bid to remove LTTE from EU’s terrorist list:
SL’s Brussels Mission monitoring developments
By Manjula Fernando
The Sri Lankan Mission in Brussels is closely monitoring developments in the EU
Court of Justice where there is a fresh bid to remove the LTTE from the EU’s
list of designated terrorist organisations.
“The Foreign Ministry is aware of the developments and has briefed the mission
in Brussels to closely watch developments,” a top Foreign Ministry official told
the Sunday Observer.
If the Court rules in favour of the LTTE, it will trigger a series of negative
repercussions including the unfreezing of its assets within the Union and
lifting a travel ban on members of the organisation.
Last Thursday, UK Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European
Communities Eleanor Sharpston QC, whose advise is usually respected by judges,
opined that the Court should reject an appeal by the EU member states in 2015 to
retain LTTE among its terror list. The LTTE was placed on the EU’s banned
organisations list in 2006, months after the assassination of Sri Lanka’s
reputed foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by an LTTE sniper in August 2005.
In 2014, the EU Court ruled the LTTE be removed from the terror list citing
procedural errors. The court said the EU Council had relied on media reports
rather than its own investigations to seek a continuation of the proscription.
This decision was given in a case initiated by LTTE front organsations in 2011.
But in 2015, the EU member states including the UK and Netherlands appealed
against the decision and won a ruling to retain the ban on the LTTE. In 2014,
the Sri Lankan government said it would provide the evidence, which the court
found lacking, to support sanctions against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE).
Asked if the Foreign Ministry submitted this evidence to the EU Court, the
senior official said he was not aware of that, but a legal counsel was looking
after the interests of Sri Lanka in the EU.
The UK Advocate General Sharpston had also requested the Middle-East terror
group Hamas too be removed from the EU’s terror list on similar grounds. |
