CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR FIVE LTTE TERRORISTS WHO BLUGEONED A TAMIL POLITICAL OPPONENT TO DEATH WHILE WORKING AS MIGRANT WORKERS IN QATAR

By Walter Jayawardhana

Five cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were sentenced to death in the Persian Gulf oil rich capital of Doha in Qatar for murdering a Tamil political opponent by bludgeoning his head with iron rods.

The person who was murdered is suspected to be a supporter of the Karuna faction who broke away from the LTTE years ago.The five Sri Lankan terrorists were sentenced to death, including one in absentia, as they were found guilty of killing the compatriot in Doha last February. Originally from Sri Lanka many of them were migrant workers in Doha.

Four of the accused were nabbed immediately after the murder, while the fifth suspect, considered the mastermind, is believed to have come to Qatar shortly before the murder and left a few days later.Quoting legal sources a local newspaper said Qatar would ask the Sri Lanka government to extradite him. The case will be automatically directed to the appeal court.

Qatar authorities believe the murder of Sri Lankan Tamil Manokaran, 25, was a case of “political assassination” as he was a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and later probably a member of its break away faction, of Karuna, the local newspaper said.

Manokaran, a native of Eravoor, near Batticaloa in Sri Lanka’s eastern province, succumbed to his wounds seven days after he was attacked at his labor camp on Street 49 in the Industrial Area, the reports said. The breakaway group’s leader Karuna hails from the same area.The charge-sheet said the main suspect supplied his accomplices with iron bars and face masks to carry out the crime.

The fifth suspect, who lived in the next room, supplied the group with information about the victim’s movements while the third stood guard outside his room.“The first, second and fourth accused sneaked into Manokaran’s room and repeatedly hit him on his head with an iron rod,” the charge sheet said.

A police officer said the suspects failed to kill Manokaran outside his accommodation, so they decided to murder him inside his room.“On the day of the incident, the unidentified suspect was monitoring the stairs to ensure that no one was around, while another one stood in the corridor.

“The others went inside the victim’s room and hit him many times on his head while he was sleeping,” the officer told the prosecution.“Though two of his roommates woke up after the victim started to scream, they were forced to remain silent as the attackers threatened them,” the witness said.

“The attackers stopped the assault only after they thought that the victim was dead,” he said.
Iron bars, two gloves and two face masks were found in the car of the fourth suspect. The police dog, which sniffed the bars, led the investigating officials to the second suspect.

A Sri Lankan roommate of Manokaran, who was summoned as a witness, said that he saw three men, two of them near the victim’s bed and the third standing near his bed.“I saw a man hitting the victim on his head with an iron bar. They threatened to kill me if I opened my mouth. They told me that they belonged to the Tamil Tigers and I knew they would not hesitate to kill their detractors,” he said.

The witness said that one of attackers shone the beam of a torch in his face to prevent him from seeing them. Another roommate of the victim corroborated his statement, the police said. The medical report said Manokaran sustained bleeding in the brain and fractures as a result of the attack