international News

(AP) 4 men charged in the UK with plotting to obtain computers, electronics for Tamil Tigers

Thursday, May 8, 2008
By: The Associated Press
LONDON

Four men were charged Thursday with plotting to obtain electronic equipment for the banned Tamil Tiger rebel group, British police said.

The men planned to get shockproof laptop computers, GPS components, and high-power magnets, Scotland Yard said, adding that the men knew or should have known the equipment would be used "for the purposes of terrorism."

The men were arrested as part of an investigation into alleged overseas funding and support for the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lanka-based insurgent group considered a terrorist organization by Britain, the European Union and the United States.

The Tigers' bloody campaign to carve an ethnic Tamil homeland out of mostly Sinhalese Sri Lanka has claimed tens of thousands of lives, but they receive considerable support from expatriated Tamils, including many living in Britain, Sri Lanka's former colonial master.

Police identified those charged Thursday as Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, 51, Jegatheswaran Muraleetharan, 46, Jeyatheswaran Vythyatharan, 39, and Murugesu Jegatheeswaran, 33.

Chrishanthakumar was arrested last year and has previously charged with being a member of the Tamil Tigers and possessing military manuals, compasses, and body armor.

The other three were arrested on May 29.

Police and Britain's Home Office declined to identify the citizenship of the suspects.

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