LTTE WITH THEIR FRONT ORGANIZATION MEMBERS ON TRIAL FOR EXTORTING FIVE MILLION EUROS FROM EXPATRIATE TAMILS
Posted on October 12th, 2009
By Walter Jayawardhana
Twenty two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects including their leader Nadaraja Matintiran charged with the offense that they extorted money from the country’s Tamils were brought before a French court in Paris on October 12.
In addition to the LTTE group, their front working in France called the Tamil Coordination Committee was also included in the case.
The LTTE and their front went on trial for the operation of an extortion racket among the expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils living in France to fund their separatist struggle in Sri Lanka.
The LTTE was banned in the European Union, in which France is a member , in 2006 and the group allegedly operated under the name the Tamil Coordination Committee.
The court was told that the groups extorted five million Euros (7.4 million dollars) from the country’s Tamils. There are 75,000 estimated Sri Lankan Tamils living in France.
The court was told that the LTTE or Tamil Tigers exert a controlling influence on the Tamils by imposing a revolutionary tax on the 1.5 million world Tamil diaspora based on their household income and size.
Most of the Paris suspects were arrested in April 2007 and charged with criminal conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, financing of terrorism or racketeering to finance terrorism.