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KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today dismissed a taxi driver’s request for judicial review to force the Interior Minister to remove the late Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group as a terrorist organization from a bulletin notification.
V Balamurugan’s lawyer, Omar Kutty Abdul Aziz, said that Judge Mariana Yahya maintained that the request was submitted after the deadline.
“The judge was of the opinion that the request should have been submitted within 90 days of its publication in the official government gazette in 2014,” Omar told reporters.
In addition, he said, Balamurugan lacked the legal capacity to initiate the action, as the prosecutor had dropped the criminal charges against him.
“The court dismissed the action but did not award the costs to the defendants (government and the Interior Ministry),” he added.
Senior Federal Councilor Ahmad Hanir Hambaly appeared for the government and the Interior Ministry.
Balamurugan, one of 12 men previously charged with supporting and possessing LTTE-related materials, did not submit the application until January of this year.
He filed the action on the grounds that then-Interior Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s official gazette notification of 12 November 2014 was irrational and unreasonable.
Balamurugan also wanted 17 other organizations and 39 people to be removed from the newsletter and the Law against money laundering, financing against terrorism and the proceeds of illicit activities.
In his case, the 37-year-old man said that the minister’s decision to declare the LTTE a terrorist group was untenable, as the Sri Lankan army had declared in 2009 that it had eliminated the LTTE.
Furthermore, he said, the Swiss Federal Court had also declared that the LTTE was not a criminal organization.
On October 29 last year, Balamurugan was charged in the Court of Sessions with supporting the LTTE at an event held in the Kuala Kangsar City Council Hall (Sungai Siput Utara Branch) on December 28, 2014.
He also faced three counts of possession of items with elements of terrorist acts or related to the LTTE, on a mobile phone at three locations in Sungai Siput on October 10 last year.
He also faced a fourth count for supporting the LTTE through a Facebook post on October 7 of last year.
However, Judicial Commissioner Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh acquitted Balamurugan on February 24 after the prosecution dropped the charges.
