I signed the petition put forward by the families of the 12 Malaysian Indians arrested in 2019, charged and detained for supporting LTTE. The petition appeals to Malaysian parliamentarians and senators to call for a withdrawal of the charges against these 12 individuals. It also calls on the Home Ministry to annul the listing of the LTTE as a terror organization under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (ALMA ).
The LTTE, which many Tamils throughout the world see as a liberation force, lost their war with the Sri Lankan state in 2009 and there have been no tangible signs of a re-emergence since. Incredulously, it is as if a mere entry of an organization on the ALMA proscription list, no doubt a definition ‘in law’, has established the existence of the entity ‘in fact’. While the PDRM ( Malaysian police) had, at the time of the arrests, made intimations that large financial movements were involved, no such charges have as yet been brought.
The petition states that the ALMA listing of LTTE as a terrorist organization in 2014 was done without making the public aware and, as such, that the arrests of the 12 individuals were made without notice. Regardless of the question of notice, or lack there of, the perversity of the arrest of these Indians under ALMA, without attendant finance related charges, is highlighted by the 3rd consecutive dismissal of a related bail application by the High Court on Friday Feb 14. It is reported in the Star Newspaper that Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah dismissed the application by Suresh Kumar on grounds that a terrorism offence under Section 130J of the Penal Code is non-bailable as provided under Section 13 of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
The Koboi Project 
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