Extortion lands Tigers in French jail
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Tough action
* Jail for 21
* Leader gets seven years jail
* Accused of extorting $ 7.4m |
A French court on Monday jailed 21 Tiger militants convicted of
extorting millions of euros from the Tamil diaspora in France to fund
their armed campaign in Sri Lanka. The toughest sentence of seven years
was given to Nadaraja Matinthiran, whom the court heard was the leader
of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation in France.
Matinthiran was accused of extorting some five million euros (7.4
million dollars) from France’s 75,000-strong Tamil community, many of
them refugees. The court also ordered that the Coordinating Committee of
Tamils-France be dismantled after ruling that it was a front for the
LTTE, which is on the European Union’s list of terror groups.
The Tiger leader in France and the 20 other defendants appeared in
court for the sentencing along with family members and a large
contingent from the Tamil community, among the biggest in Europe.
AFP
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