Decision on Sept 17 over bid to remove LTTE from terror organisation list
The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has set Sept 17 to deliver a decision on a judicial review application by taxi driver V Balamurugan to delist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from being gazetted as a terrorist group.
Judge Mariana Yahya said this after hearing submissions from Balamurugan's (above) counsel Omar Kutty and senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, who appeared on behalf of the home minister and the government, as the first and second respondents.
Omar later told reporters that there were two parts to the applicant's argument...
The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has set Sept 17 to deliver a decision on a judicial review application by taxi driver V Balamurugan to delist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from being gazetted as a terrorist group.
Judge Mariana Yahya said this after hearing submissions from Balamurugan's (above) counsel Omar Kutty and senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, who appeared on behalf of the home minister and the government, as the first and second respondents.
Omar later told reporters that there were two parts to the applicant's argument to call for the removal of LTTE from the list.
He said then home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had taken into account "irrelevant considerations" in gazetting LTTE as a specified entity under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
According to Omar, the respondent had in their affidavits referred to news reports referring to aggressions of LTTE since as early as 1987, all the way to 2009 when the organisation had gone defunct.
"Throughout this whole time, when the LTTE was supposedly very aggressive, the government never passed any law to say they are a threat against national security.
"Then suddenly after the organisation has been defunct, five years later, they are a threat to national security," he said when met after the hearing.
"So we are saying that this order when it was first gazetted in 2014, is irrational, it does not make sense."
Omar said the applicant's second argument relates to powers of the home minister to perform a review of the specified entities list once every six months as stated under Section 66B(9) of the act.
"The minister in his affidavit did not say he reviewed the list at all. Not even a mention of the word review in his affidavit to object our application," he added.
Omar noted that there was a separate affidavit filed by a Home Ministry officer which stated the review was done according to the procedure, but insisted it should have been mentioned by the minister himself.
"It (the affidavit) should come from the minister. As far as we are concerned, despite the secretary saying the minister may have done it, our position is he did not do so, because otherwise, he would mention it in his affidavit," he said.
As a result of the non-compliance with the review procedure, Omar said the applicant argued that the order to list LTTE as a specified entity should be declared illegal.
On Jan 8, Balamurugan, 38, filed an application for leave to initiate a judicial review to seek a declaration that the LTTE details in the gazette were null and void and the listing of LTTE was unlawful as it was ultra vires to the federal constitution.
He is also seeking leave for a certiorari order to quash the listing of LTTE in the gazette, the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing, and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities (Declaration of Specified Entities and Reporting Requirements (Amendment) 2014, dated Nov 12, 2014.
On Feb 24, Balamurugan was acquitted and discharged on five charges of supporting LTTE by High Court judicial commissioner Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh after the prosecution informed the court that they received instruction from the Attorney-General's Chambers to drop the charges against the accused.
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