{"id":59023,"date":"2016-09-22T21:19:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T03:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=59023"},"modified":"2016-09-22T13:47:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T20:47:44","slug":"eu-top-court-advised-to-drop-ltte-from-terror-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/09\/22\/eu-top-court-advised-to-drop-ltte-from-terror-list\/","title":{"rendered":"EU top court advised to drop LTTE from terror list"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>September 22, 2016\u00a0\u00a004:28 pm<\/p>\n<div class=\"bookmarkIcon\"><span class=\"st_facebook\"><span class=\"stButton\"><span class=\"chicklets facebook\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>An adviser to the European Union\u2019s top court said Thursday Hamas and the Tamil Tigers should be taken off the EU\u2019s terror list, because the bloc\u2019s governments failed to present sufficient evidence that the groups participated in terrorist attacks.<\/div>\n<div class=\"newsContent\">\n<p>The opinion of the European Court of Justice\u2019s advocate general isn\u2019t binding on the court\u2019s judges. However, if confirmed, it would settle a yearslong court battle between the Palestinian and Sri Lankan groups and EU governments.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, the EU\u2019s second-highest court ordered Hamas and the Tamil Tigers to be struck off the bloc\u2019s terror list in two separate decisions. It said at the time that Hamas\u2019s listing wasn\u2019t based on evidence that had been properly examined and confirmed by national authorities, but on factual imputations derived from the press and the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The European Council, which represents EU governments in the bloc\u2019s lawmaking process, had appealed that decision, arguing that it was relying on a 2001 decision by the U.K. that designated both Hamas and the Tamil Tigers as terrorist groups as well as the terror listing for both groups in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s opinion rejects that argument, following similar reasoning as the 2014 decision. The council cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet,\u201d Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston said.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Sharpston also said that the council needed to present to the court information on attacks perpetrated by the groups, and cannot rely on terror listings by countries outside the bloc, such as the U.S., without ensuring that they had sufficient protection of fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p>A final judgment from the Luxembourg-based ECJ will likely take several months to arrive.<br \/>\nWall Street Journal<br \/>\n-Agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8211; See more at: http:\/\/www.adaderana.lk\/news\/37080\/eu-top-court-advised-to-drop-ltte-from-terror-list#sthash.QtzGwHjf.dpuf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana September 22, 2016\u00a0\u00a004:28 pm \u00a0An adviser to the European Union\u2019s top court said Thursday Hamas and the Tamil Tigers should be taken off the EU\u2019s terror list, because the bloc\u2019s governments failed to present sufficient evidence that the groups participated in terrorist attacks. The opinion of the European Court of Justice\u2019s advocate general [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}