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Britain to maintain ban on LTTE
Britain’s ban on the LTTE as a foreign terrorist organisation will remain and is not affected by the decision of the European Union’s General Court annulling some of the sanctions imposed on the LTTE by the European Union.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office source said, “Britain’s domestic proscription of the LTTE is unaffected by this judgment.” He said Britain had denounced the LTTE as a brutal terrorist organisation and it would remain a proscribed group under British law. The source said Britain would support the European Union Council in appealing against the decision of the EU’s General Court. He said the effects of the annulment would not come into force until the appeal reached its conclusion. “With the rest of the EU, Britain will also be looking into how to avoid similar annulments in the future”.
The FCO stressed that the judgment made clear that the decision to annul the EU Council’s listing was based on fundamental procedural grounds. The Court rejected the LTTE’s arguments that it could never be listed as a terrorist organisation by virtue of its involvement in an internal armed conflict.
The Sunday Times had previously reported that the UK’s ban on the LTTE under domestic law enacted in the year 2000, will not be null and void because the EU Court’s ruling.