The Hague Chamber of Recusal ruled that the panel of three judges in the case of five alleged Dutch Tamil citizens charged with providing material assistance to Liberation Tigers, can continue, after the panel considered a challenge to the judges submitted by defense lawyer, Victor Koppe, for refusing to let Koppe continue with the 200-page address beyond 5:00 p.m., Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) reported Monday. Koppe said the trial was "unfair" as the Judges "shamelessly ignored his request for an additional 30 minutes of defense argument.
The five defendants are accused of membership of Liberation Tigers, which the Netherlands considers a "terrorist" organization. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is calling for 16-year jail sentences. The five are alleged to have collected money for their cause, RNW report said.
Arrested last year as part of a probe in the Netherlands into the activities of the LTTE, the five men have lived in the country for a long time and have Dutch nationality.
Victor Koppe of Bohler Advocatten of Amsterdam is the defense counsel for one of the defendants, 46 year old Srirangam R. from The Hague.
Victor Koppe has recently applied to the European Court of Justice to have the LTTE removed from the EU’s list of banned terror organisations. The link to the current case in The Hague is clear – lift the ban and the Dutch prosecution falls apart. The likelihood of this happening soon enough to impact on the current case is unclear, RNW said in an earlier article.
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