EU court upholds LTTE ban

By Sujeeva Nivunhella

reporting from London

The LTTE has lost its legal battle in the European Court against the proscription imposed against the group by the European Union.

Judgment of the case LTTE v EU Council (T-160/19) was delivered by a panel of judges comprising S. Gervasoni, President, L. Madise and P. Nihoul (Rapporteur) last week.

The European Political Subdivision of the LTTE was represented by A. van Eik and T. Buruma, while the Council of the European Union (EU) was represented by B. Driessen and S. van Overmeire.

The UK government, which proscribed the LTTE on March 29, 2001, also supported the European Union’s stance of maintaining the LTTE’s proscription. Representing the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland were solicitors F. Shibli, S. McCrory and P. Nevill.

During the hearing, it was mentioned that the British Home Secretary took into account the attacks by the LTTE in January 2000 which had taken place in Colombo, Morawewa and Vavuniya (Sri Lanka) and had resulted in fatalities and injuries, including civilian fatalities and injuries, before the proscription.

The decision to maintain the proscription in June 2014 by the Home Secretary was on the basis that the group existed and retained a military capability and network coupled with the intent to conduct terrorist attacks in the future if it is perceived to be in the organization’s interest to do so.

Despite the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009, their international fundraising and revival capacities remained, the Home Secretary observed. This was notably evidenced by a number of incidents that had revealed international connections to LTTE-related individuals.

The Home Secretary came to his decision after consulting with the entire government, intelligence services and police authorities which was later subject to a review and approval by the two chambers of the UK Parliament.

Among the terrorist acts discussed in the case were ‘the dismantling in Malaysia in May 2014 of [an] LTTE-related cell that led to the seizure of propaganda materials and an amount of foreign currency. Considering the material in question, Malaysian law enforcement authorities have investigated and confirmed the attempt to revive the LTTE activities’.

‘The dismantling in Sri Lanka in 2014 of a cell led by Kajeepan Selvanayagam (alias Gobi, a former member of [the LTTE] intelligence wing) with the recovery of stashed arms. Police officers were shot at during the operation and one of them injured. Gobi was later killed during a subsequent confrontation with the army. Twenty six suspects were arrested and so far four have been convicted’.

‘The foiled conspiracy in January 2017 to assassinate M.A. Sumanthiran, Member of the Parliament. Explosives and other peripherals were recovered from some of the suspects who are so far indicted before the High Court of Colombo. The linkage with [the LTTE] can be established by the fact that the same suspects are also prosecuted for disseminating propaganda material in support of the LTTE’.

The judges ordered the European Political Subdivision of the LTTE to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the Council of the European Union and ordered the UK government to bear their costs.