Man tried in Germany for backing Tamil Tigers

A Sri Lankan-born man went on trial in Germany on Monday charged with membership of the rebel group the Tamil Tigers which Ge-rmany considers a terrorist organisation.

The 53-year-old German national, identified only as Yogendran G. by the court, is accused of having raised funds from 2007-2009 for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in and around the northern city of Hamburg.

The LTTE committed a string of attacks against civilian targets and national infrastructure during the country’s decades-long civil war that killed more than 1,00,000 people and ended in 2009 when government forces crushed the rebels.

Prosecutors in the Hamburg court said that the man raised more than $88,000 for combat and terrorist activities including suicide attacks by the LTTE in its campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the South Asian country.

The accused, who said he had been a German citizen since 2007, did not speak in his defence on the opening day of the trial.