Brussels, Oct 22 (IANS): A court in The Hague Friday sentenced five ethnic Tamils to six years in prison for helping finance the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), EuAsiaNews reported.
All five men -- who now have Dutch citizenship -- were accused of raising funds for the LTTE by extorting money from the Sri Lankan diaspora in the Netherlands, according to Netherlands Radio.
The men were charged with overseeing an international criminal and terrorist organisation involved in arson, bombings and murder. The prosecutors had demanded sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
LTTE founder V. Prabhakaran headed the organisation for around three decades until his death in 2009, when the organisation was defeated by the Sri Lankan government forces.