The 10-year European Union (EU) ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may be lifted following a recommendation by a top European Court adviser.
On Thursday, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), whose advice is generally adopted by judges, recommended that they reject an appeal by the Council of EU Member States against the lower EU Court's decisions in late 2014 to remove the LTTE and Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas from the list of terrorists, due to procedural flaws.
The EUC, in December 2014, said it "has decided to appeal the Judgment of the General Court" which annulled, in October 2014, the measures taken by the council to maintain the LTTE on the European list of terrorist organizations on "procedural grounds".
The European Union Council, which represents all 28 governments, filed an appeal.
The EUC's appeal also cited the lower Court's failure to accept its argument that the groups' presence on the US list of terrorists justified sanctions.
Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston concluded, however, that the EU could not assume that other countries gave those it listed sufficient right of appeal.
She recommended the appeal be rejected.
The ECJ said its justices were beginning their deliberations on the case and there was no set date for a ruling.
Commenting the latest development, a leading Human Rights Lawyer in UK, Arun Gananathan said that Advocate General's opinion is "a severe setback not only to the government for Sri Lanka but also for the EUC".
"Although the opinion given by the Advocate General Sharpston is not binding and not final, the ECJ in majority of the cases follow the opinions given by the Advocates General. Therefore, it is highly likely that the ECJ would dismiss the Council of the European Union's appeal against the General Court's judgment (of 2014) that the decision to include LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organizations was wrong," he told Ceylon News on Thursday.
The LTTE, which was fighting for a separate state against the Sri Lankan Government over the past three decades was militarily defeated in May 2009. The way the war was brought to an end has given rise to an international war crimes investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The EU's terrorist list was drawn up following the 11 September attacks on the US in 2001, to enable the bloc to freeze a group's financial assets and improve the way police and justice officials co-operated.
In 2006, the European Council placed the LTTE on the EU list relating to frozen funds of terrorist organizations and has maintained them on that list ever since, referring to, inter alia, decisions of Indian authorities.
The LTTE contested their maintenance on the list in the European Court. They submitted that their confrontation with the Government of Sri-Lanka was an 'armed conflict' within the meaning of international law, subject only to international humanitarian law and not to anti-terrorist legislation.
Hamas has always argued it is a resistance movement rather than a terrorist organization, although under its charter it is committed to Israel's destruction. It is seen as a terrorist group by the EU, US, Canada and Japan.
After winning parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas ousted its Fatah rivals from Gaza the following year and has since fought three conflicts with Israel.
(Source Ceylon News and BBC)
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