12 LTTE terrorists face additional charges

(FMT) – The 12 men accused of trying to revive the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been slapped with more terrorism charges today, and face a maximum of 30 years’ jail or life impisonment if convicted.

DAP assemblymen P Gunasekaran and G Saminathan, as well as V Sureshkumar and B Subramaniam, were charged under Section 130J(1)(a) of the Penal Code for their alleged support for LTTE through social media.

Eight others – A Kalaimughilan, S Chandru, V Balamurugan, S Arivainthan, R Sundram, S Thanagaraj, M Pumugan and S Teran – are slapped with an additional charge of possessing items linked to the group.

With the exception of Subramaniam and Sureshkumar, the 10 men were charged with similar offences in five states on Tuesday.

All 12 men were produced before judges Rozina Ayob, Azman Ahmad and Azura Alwi in three separate Session Courts.

Their cases will be mentioned tomorrow as lawyer Ramkarpal Singh urged Rozina to transfer the matter to High Court for the defence to raise constitutional issues on the right to get bail.

Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad lead the prosecution team in the three courts.

They will be held at Sungai Buloh prison pending disposal of their cases.

LTTE was labelled a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act in February 2014.

Sri Lanka, the United States, Canada, India and the European Union have also labelled LTTE as a terrorist group.