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Paris racket bared:
Tigers on trial
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On Trial
* For running an extortion racket
*Accused of extorting US $ 7.4 m
* Tamil Coordination Committee, listed as
terrorist organisation, also on dock
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Twenty-two cadres of the suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
went on trial Monday for running an extortion racket among Paris’s
ethnic Tamil diaspora. The defendants include Nadaraja Matinthiran, the
alleged leader in France of the LTTE, which is accused of extorting some
five million euros (US $ 7.4 million) from the country’s 75,000 Tamils.
Also in the dock is a group called the Tamil Coordination Committee
in France, believed to be a legal front for the LTTE, which has been
listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union since 2006.
Experts believe the Tigers exert a controlling influence over the
political life of the 1.5-million-strong world Tamil diaspora, levying a
“revolutionary tax” based on household size and income.
Most of the Paris suspects were arrested in April 2007 and charged
with criminal conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, financing of
terrorism or racketeering to finance terrorism. Defence lawyer Gilles
Piquois called the case to be thrown out, arguing that the LTTE was not
considered a terrorist organisation by the Sri Lankan Government in 2007
when the charges were brought. The trial is set to run until October 28.
AFP
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