Why were LTTE 12 charged at all, MP asks Thomas

 

Some of the 12 men who were accused of links to the LTTE being taken to a court hearing in 2019

PETALING JAYA: Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas has been asked to explain why 12 people were charged in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) case in 2019 if he had felt the case against them to be weak as he states in his newly published memoirs.

“Clearly, there was no case against the accused,’ said Klang MP Charles Santiago of DAP. “If there is no case, why did the Attorney-General’s Chambers allow them to be charged?” he told FMT.

“Previously, police said huge financial transactions had been detected in the accounts of those arrested, with the money purportedly to revive LTTE. Until today, this evidence has not been produced.”

Santiago said some of the 12 accused still have difficulty in finding jobs as a result of the case.

Charles Santiago.

DAP assemblymen P Gunasekaran and G Saminathan and 10 others were charged in October 2019 over alleged links to the Sri Lankan militant group. However, in February last year, Thomas announced that he was exercising his powers as public prosecutor to discontinue proceedings against the 12.

in his memoirs published on Jan 30, Thomas wrote that he had been troubled by the impending trial of the 12 accused as he felt the prosecution’s case was weak. He also said the LTTE case and an inquest into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim illustrated the societal racism faced by Pakatan Harapan while in government.

Adib died of injuries allegedly sustained when he was attacked while putting out a fire near Seafield Temple in Subang.

PH did know know how to handle the two issues

Santiago agreed the two cases had been used to stoke racial sentiments against the PH government but Thomas must also accept some blame.

He said it was clear that the LTTE issue and Adib’s death had been used as a political tool, and “PH did not know how to handle these issues”.

He said Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then PH chairman and prime minister, did not provide the leadership, especially on the LTTE case, and the other Malay leaders in PH chose to keep silent.

Santiago said he believed that infighting within PH was one reason for the failure of Malay leaders in PH to speak up on the two issues.

He said the political reality was that such issues would persist as long as race-based parties continue to exist.

“I hope people will now see how race and religion were played up, which later brought together the likes of Umno and PAS, and later PPBM. Today, PH is not in power. They are. Who is stopping them from resolving these issues for which we were blamed?” Santiago said. - FMT