{"id":44915,"date":"2012-06-10T19:33:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-10T19:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=44915"},"modified":"2012-06-10T19:33:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-10T19:33:45","slug":"swiss-prosecutor-takes-tamil-money-laundering-investigation-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/swiss-prosecutor-takes-tamil-money-laundering-investigation-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Prosecutor Takes Tamil Money Laundering Investigation Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Swiss Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office will take its investigation into suspected money laundering by 12 members of the Swiss Tamil Tigers (LTTE) to the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, it was reported on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported that in the Netherlands, Swiss prosecutors planned to interview the head of finance of the LTTE who is imprisoned there. In Sri Lanka, prosecutors will question some 25 people from senior ranks of the Tamil Tigers, some of whom are currently imprisoned.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44916\" style=\"width: 287px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/swiss-prosecutor-takes-tamil-money-laundering-investigation-abroad\/tamil-32873578\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-44916\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44916\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44916\" title=\"tamil-32873578\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/tamil-32873578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"210\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44916\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Switzerland is home to some 42,000 Tamils (Keystone)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Jeannette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor\u2019s office told the paper the aim of the investigations, due to take place in autumn,\u00a0was to strengthen the money laundering case against the 12 Swiss Tamils who were .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s to prove that the Swiss branch of the global LTTE knowingly and willingly misused money from illegally obtained loans to inject it into the international finance circuit of the organisation,\u201d Balmer said.<\/p>\n<p>The proecutor\u2019s office suspects that the Tamils used fake payslips or Sri Lankans resident in Switzerland to obtain loans of between SFr70,000 \u2013 100,000 ($73,000 &#8211; 104,000). Once obtained, the cash was couriered to Sri Lanka where it was laundered locally and eventually used to finance the purchase of weapons during the civil war, the prosecutor believes.<\/p>\n<p>The investigations in Sri Lanka come after the Swiss Prosecutor\u2019s Office made an official request to Sri Lankan authorities in 2011, which was granted.<\/p>\n<p>After being at war with the Tamil Tigers for some 25 years, the Sri Lankan government is keen for criminal convictions of Tamils.<\/p>\n<p>However, under the terms of the agreement with Sri Lankan authorities &#8211; which Swiss authorities fear would otherwise assert undue pressure on witnesses &#8211; the interrogations will take place in the presence of Swiss lawyers only.<\/p>\n<p>The usual Sri Lankan method of hearings based on a questionnaire will not occur and no Sri Lankan authorities will not be present during the interrogations.<\/p>\n<p>The three-decade civil war in Sri Lanka ended in May 2009 after Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the last of his soldiers made their final stand against the Sri Lankan army. Casualties among the Tamil civilian population trapped in the disputed Vanni enclave shocked the world.<\/p>\n<p>A 2011 United Nations-sponsored report on Sri Lanka said there was &#8220;credible evidence&#8221; the military killed thousands of civilians at the end of the civil war. The report also found the Tamil Tiger separatists\u00a0used civilians as human shields as troops closed in on their final positions.<\/p>\n<p>The report concluded that the government\u2019s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which has investigated the end of the conflict in response to international pressure, was &#8220;deeply flawed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>swissinfo.ch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-from-foreign-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Swiss Prosecutor Takes Tamil Money Laundering Investigation Abroad - 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