By Ashwin Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — The Sessions Court today allowed an application by the prosecution to transfer the cases of six men accused of attempting to revive the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to the High Court.
Judge Azura Alwi made the ruling following the application by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Firdaus Abu Hanifah.
Mohd Firdaus said the prosecution was relying on Section 177A (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer the case.
“The six men could also make their bail applications before a High Court judge then,” Azura said.
Lawyers Ramkarpal Singh, Syafiqah Sofian and Matthews Jude, who appeared for the accused, did not object to the transfer application.
Five of the accused — S Chandru, 38, a former chief executive officer of a company, technician S Arivainthan, 27, storekeeper S Thanagaraj, 26, security guard M Pumugan, 29, and school teacher Sundram Renggan @ Rengasamy, 52 — were charged before Azura on October 31.
They had allegedly given support to LTTE using the accounts under the name “Tamilrasan Sivam”, “Ariventhan Subramaniam”, “Pumugan Tamilan”, “Chandru Suparmaniam” and “Elilan Elilan”, respectively.
The five were said to have been found to have committed the offence between January 11 and October 11, 2019, at the Counter-Terrorism Division (E8) office in Bukit Aman.
They were charged under Section 130J (1)(a) of the Penal Code, which carries natural life imprisonment or up to a 30-year jail term or fine if convicted.
The sixth accused, — taxi driver V Balamurugan, 37 — was charged with a similar offence before Sessions judge Azman Ahmad on October 31. His case was mentioned before Azura as Azman is on leave.
LTTE was labelled a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act in February 2014.
