Lanka top military brass to testify against LTTE

Sri Lanka's senior most military officers will testify against three Tamils in Melbourne for having raised funds for LTTE campaign.

Sri Lanka8217;s senior most military officers will testify against three Tamils in Melbourne, who have been charged with raising money in Australia to fund an LTTE campaign in the island nation, the Defence Ministry here said.

8220;Sri Lanka8217;s most senior military figures will give evidence against three Melbourne-based Tamils accused of raising money in Australia to fund a terrorism campaign in Sri Lanka,8221; it said.

The trio 8212; Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, Sivarajah Yathavan and Arumugam Rajeevan 8212; will stand trial in the Victorian Supreme Court next year. They have pleaded not guilty.

The men accused of being members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE entered their pleas last week after about six weeks of sporadic hearings, which began in September in Melbourne Magistrates Court, the Defence Ministry said in its website quoting the Australian media reports.

They faced charges of being members of 8220;a terrorist organisation8221; between July 1, 2004 and their arrest this year, providing resources to a terrorist organisation between July 6, 2002, and 2007, and making available an asset to a proscribed entity.

Vinayagamoorthy and Yathavan have also pleaded not guilty to intentionally providing support or resources to a terrorist organisation, the ministry said. Vinayagamoorthy pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of making available an asset, namely boat design software and radio transmitters, to a proscribed entity.

Maximum penalties for the charges range between five and 25 years8217; imprisonment.

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Central to the Australian Federal Police case against the men is the accusation that they collectively raised 1.9 million dollars in charitable donations from the Australian Tamil diaspora, most of it collected after the 2004 tsunami, the ministry website said.

The case has proceeded despite the LTTE not having been proscribed a terrorist organisation by Australian authorities.

Whether the LTTE is a terrorist organisation or a separatist group engaged in a civil war, will be central to whether a jury finds the men guilty of the charges. Rajeevan, Vinayagamoorthy and Yathavan are on bail, the website reported.