As the Dutch prosecution of five alleged members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers continued into its third week the defence lawyer for one suspect demanded a new trial in an unusually bad-tempered day in court.

By Richard Walker in The Hague

Defending Srirangam R, Victor Koppe asked for the promise of a 30-minute extension to the day in order to guarantee the completion of his 200- page presentation. After the judge denied that request, the issue escalated, with interpreters not being able to keep up with an increasingly pacey verbal delivery from the defence benches. Koppe accused the trial Judge of being more interested in finishing on time than in the arguments; that this meant he lacked impartiality, and applied for a new trial.

Rigid and childish
A panel of three independent judges denied the request for a new trial on Monday, but according to Koppe, said “the way the court acted on Friday, with the stopwatch in its hand, was rigid if not childish”. Since the court did not in the end stop the defence from finishing its statement but made more time available on subsequent days, the motion was denied.

Defence thrust
Following two weeks of witness statements, including a day from the prosecution, the defence then set about defining the parameters of how this case should be considered – how to legally describe the thirty-year conflict in Sri Lanka. Koppe argues it is an armed conflict with internal combatants, and that therefore the fighting itself is legitimate. Only ‘excesses’ could be considered as crimes against humanity, he maintains. This is the most important element in the defence’s case since winning this argument means that nothing the five accused have done can be defined as supporting terror.

Wikileaked Tigers
In a week when Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is being mischievously mentioned in the same breath as the Nobel Peace Prize, defence counsel Victor Koppe quoted a Wikileaks cable to argue against the inclusion of the Tamil Tigers on the EU’s list of banned terror groups.

The cable details a conversation between two American diplomats describing how the LTTE found its way onto the EU’s list. According to that conversation, France, the Nordic countries and the Netherlands were all reluctant to place the Tigers on the list, but ultimately, says Koppe, American pressure won through.

Coercion
Accusations that Tamils in the Netherlands were coerced into contributing thousands of euros per year towards the cause, argued Koppe, were not substantiated since the few statements corroborating these claims had since been withdrawn.

The mood among Tamil supporters at the court is sombre. There is little optimism that the five men will be acquitted on all charges. The case will end on Friday with the five accused themselves having the chance to make statements directly to the trial judges, who will then take two weeks to deliver their verdict.