The General Court of the European Union (CVRIA) today has annulled on procedural grounds, the Council measures maintaining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the European list of terrorist organizations.

However, CVRIA said that the effects of the annulled measures are maintained temporarily in order to ensure the effectiveness of any possible future freezing of funds.

In 2006, the Council placed the LTTE on the EU list relating to frozen funds of terrorist organisations and has maintained them on that list ever since, referring to, inter alia, decisions of Indian authorities.

The LTTE contest their maintenance on the list maintaining that their confrontation with the Government of Sri-Lanka was an ‘armed conflict’ within the meaning of international law. Therefore the LTTE argues that the conflict was subject only to international humanitarian law and not to anti-terrorist legislation. In addition, the LTTE said that the maintenance on the list relating to frozen funds is based on unreliable grounds which do not derive from decisions of ‘competent authorities’ within the meaning of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP.

In today’s judgment, the Court finds that EU law on the prevention of terrorism also applies in ‘armed conflicts’ within the meaning of international law. Therefore, the LTTE cannot claim that the existence of an armed conflict precludes a possible application of EU law with regard to them.

As regards the decisions of Indian authorities relied upon by the Council, the Court finds that an authority of a State outside the EU may be a ‘competent authority.’ However, the Council must carefully verify at the outset that the legislation of the third State ensures protection of the rights of defence and of the right to effective judicial protection equivalent to that guaranteed at EU level.

The Court determined that the Council did not carry out such a thorough examination in the present case. This led to the annulment of the measures.

The Court stresses that those annulments, on fundamental procedural grounds, do not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of the LTTE as a terrorist group.
(with inputs from neurope.eu).