Two more LTTE cadres arrested in Paris

PARIS: French police detained two leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who evaded arrest last year and fled the country when police closed in on them during the major round up of top Tigers operating in Paris.

The Sous-Directorate Anti-Terrorism (SDAT) of France announced that two leading LTTE activists Subramanium Muhundan and Yogarasa Sivarasan were apprehended in Paris on May 13 after investigations lasting several months.

Muhundan and Sivarasan were the head of the LTTE political and finance since the arrest of 26 LTTE cadres including top most leaders of all the divisions of the terrorist organisation in April 01, 2007. After preliminary investigations, 11 were released but the top 14 leaders were remanded without bail. The detained include LTTE's French leader Nadaraja Mathinatharan alias Parithi and the Political Leader Aravindan Thuraiswamy alias Metha.

At that time, several LTTE cadres including Muhundan and Sivarasan crossed over to neighbouring countries through open border points.

After the arrest of the top two leaders, the LTTE appointed Stalin Sarvarimuthu alias Ranjan and Ravi Manikkam alias Utha Ravi to the top two posts. But within months, the SDAT arrested them together with three others taking the total LTTE detainees to 19.

Although lawyers submitted several appeals for release, the Magistrates of Paris refused bail for 19 LTTE leaders.

French police produced the detainees before five judges in groups and their bail applications were rejected and their custody period was extended by another four months. The Court was informed that the suspects would be tried for several criminal activities including extortion, intimidation, forceful fund collection, money laundering and fraudulent finance dealings.

Sources in Paris said another detainee, Thuraisamy Jayamurthy alias Sinna Jeya was in-charge of finance and money laundering. Ranjan and four others were apprehended after questioning the first group of 14 arrested in April. Though Ranjan was keeping a low profile, French police were monitoring the activities of the LTTE's second rung, after nabbing the top leaders.

SDAT officers informed Courts that they had uncovered a large number of documents from several LTTE offices and other front organisations and it would take several months to examine all the evidence. They added that if the suspects were released on bail it would hamper investigations and would be difficult to get witnesses as the LTTE is well-known for intimidation of hostile witnesses.

Earlier, when the suspects were produced before Courts, LTTE's top international lawyer Rudrakumar, who also assisted the LTTE team at peace talks, came to France to get them out on remand custody. However, Court rejected the bail plea of the top notch LTTE lawyer and ordered further custody.

While keeping the 21 LTTE detainees, French police continues its search of the Tamil miscreants involved in the acts of challenging the French authority.