Cabinet to discuss A-G decision on LTTE 12

Zaim Ibrahim Zaim Ibrahim Updated 4 years ago · Published on 23 Feb 2020 12:37PM · 2 Comments

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas’ decision to drop criminal proceedings against the 12 men charged with supporting LTTE will be brought to the cabinet. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, February 23, 2020.

THE cabinet will discuss Attorney-General Tommy Thomas’ decision to discontinue criminal proceedings against the 12 men charged with supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa.

Mujahid said the cabinet will also discuss how certain individuals and groups can be delisted from the Home Ministry’s terrorist list.

He added the decision to remove a group from the terror list is under the purview of the Home Ministry and not the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“Our stance is clear, like Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said, to delist any organisation as a terror group or a threat, is not the decision of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It is the decision of the Home Ministry.”

The Home Ministry has the power to list any organisation as terrorist group on safety grounds.

“The attorney-general has no such powers. We are waiting to bring this issue to the cabinet and discuss whether to delist someone or an organisation as a terrorist,” Mujahid told reporters at Masjid Jamek, Batu Uban in Penang.

In a statement last Friday, Thomas had said “there is no realistic prospect of conviction for any of the 12 accused on any of the 34 charges”.

Thomas had added the men’s possession of photos of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, deemed a hero to many Tamils, was not sufficient to amount to supporting terrorism.

“Accordingly, in the exercise of my discretion pursuant to Article 145(3) of the federal constitution, I have decided to discontinue proceedings against them with immediate effect.”

Mujahid said discontinuing criminal proceedings against the accused with links to terror groups, warrants careful scrutiny.

Any decision involving terror groups such as Islamic State, LTTE or others should not be taken lightly, he added.

The 12 LTTE accused are DAP state assemblymen G. Saminathan and P. Gunasekaran, V. Suresh Kumar, B. Subramaniam, S. Thanagaraj, S. Chandru, S. Arivainthan, M. Pumugan, Sundram Renggan @ Rengasamy, V. Balamurugan, A. Kalaimughilan, and S. Teeran.

They are arrested as under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 and denied bail.

They are facing charges for supporting LTTE at an event, social media and accused of possessing, distributing and displaying materials related to the Sri Lanka based defunct terror group. – February 23, 2020.

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Comments

  • There must be a professional stanard approach or process how a group or individual is classified as terrorist or extremist. PDRM, AG and home minister specialists ought to be involved to collectively gazette anyone as terrorist or extremist. Not the home minister alone, he is a politician, knows nothing much about national security procedure and assessment. All expertise in AG chamber, PDRM SB and home minsitry experts must sit down and decide collectively. This will ensure fair, without favor and professional decision making process. This will ensure non bias , thoroughly investigated and adequately informative decision making process. Nobody will question the outcome.

    Posted 4 years ago by James Wong · Reply

  • Am I missing something here? All Attorney-General Tommy Thomas has done is drop criminal proceedings against the 12 men charged with supporting LTTE. Where does he day he has taken LTTE off the list of terrorist organisations?

    Posted 4 years ago by K.C. BOEY · Reply