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TWO LTTE MEN ARE ARRESTED IN AUSTRALIA FOR USING TSUNAMI CHARITY MONEY FOR TERRORIST ACTIVITIES By Walter Jayawardhana Austalias largest selling newspapers , the Herald Sun and the Age published news reports that that two prominent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders in Australia have been arrested by the Australian Federal police for using Tsunami relief charity money collected for the victims of the devastated Tamil areas for terrorist activities in Sri Lanka. The two have been identified as Sivaraj Yathevan (36), the Tiger agent in charge of Eela Murasu, a Tamil community paper, and Arooran Vignanamoorthy (32), the righ-hand man of Yathevan and produced before a magistrate court in Melbourne, Australia. The federal police told the Age more arrests are to come following
these and the two Tamils of Sri lankan origin were arrested at the
conclusion of two year long investigation after public complaints. Arooran was working as a manager of a restaurant in Glen Waverley . After arriving in Australia as a refugee he is beieved to have been made the manager of the restaurant that had been bought over with LTTE funds. Yathevan came as a student and is suspected of being the arm-twisting tough man of the LTTE outfit in Australia. They were working under other senior leaders of the outfit. The herald Sun said:- The men were charged with terror offences after raids this morning on homes and businesses across Melbourne eastern suburbs by Federal and State police. According to the charge sheet they were also charged with providing
support to a terrorist organization, and intentionally receiving funds
from or making funds available to a terrorist organisation, knowing
the organisation is a terrorist organisation, contrary to sections
102.7 and 102.6(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995. The herald Sun further said, Police will allege the two men are members of the Sri Lankan separatists group Tamil Tigers, and face a maximum of 25 years in jail under the Criminal Code Act 1995. Federal police counter terrorism spokesman Frank Prendergast said they would allege the men were supporting the overseas terror group. ``It will be alleged in court that these men are members of an organisation engaging in terror activities overseas, and they have been providing active, material support to that group,'' Assistant Commission Prendergast said. He alleged the men had duped Australians who thought they were donating money to Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, as well as other charities. Police would not reveal how much money had been siphoned from charities to the terror group nor what type of material support they had provided to the Tamil Tigers. But Assistant Commissioiner Prendergast stressed there was no evidence that the men planned to carry out any terrorist attacks in Australia. The Australian Federal Police and Victorian Police joint police counter terrorism team operation raided eight homes and business in Melbourne's eastern suburbs including Mt Waverley, Vermont South, Burwood East, Dandenong and Glen Waverley. Victoria Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the arrests followed a tip-off from the public. "We regard these offences as extremely serious," Deputy Commissioner Walshe said. Police would allege that the men actively raised funds with the knowledge some of the money would go towards "operational activity" by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Properties in the Sydney suburbs of Toongabbie and Paramatta were also raided as part of the investigation. The investigation follows Australian Federal Police raids in 2005 in which documents and computers were seized at several Melbourne properties but so far it is unclear if today's arrests are linked to those earlier warrants. Assistant Commissioner Prendergast did confirm the raids were the result of an investigation launched in January 2005 and showed a high degree of cooperation between Federal and State authorities. He also stressed the value of public information in tracking
down possible terror suspects. Officers have charged a Mount Waverley man, 32, and a Vermont South man, 36,with three offences relating to being a member of a terrorist organisation and making funds available to a terrorist organisation. They are expected to face court this afternoon. The arrests followed raids today across Melbourne and in Sydney as part of a two-year joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police into claims charity groups were raising funds for Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or Tamil Tigers. Police conducted 10 raids on premises in Melbourne's east at Vermont, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Dandenong, East Burwood and in the Sydney suburbs of Toongabbie and Parramatta. Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the men were accused of running tsunami relief appeal to raise funds for the Tamil Tigers, allegedly duping people out of a substantial amount of money.
If found guilty, the men face a maximum of 25 years in jail. AFP National Counter Terrorism Manager Frank Prendergast said there was no evidence the men were planning terrorism activities in Australia. "It will be alleged in court that these men are members of an organisation engaging in terrorist activity overseas and they have been providing active, material support to that group,'' he said. He refused to rule out making further arrests following today's
raids. The Tamil Tigers have been waging a bloody secessionist campaign against the Sri Lankan government since the 1970s. Since 1983, there has been an on-off civil war between the
Tamil Tigers and the government, which it's estimated has killed around
64,000 people and displaced 1 million. The origins of the current
violence go back to the island's independence from Britain in 1948. |
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