The European Court of Justice on Wednesday removed Sri Lankan separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, from its terrorism blacklist, Reuters reported. However, the European Union’s top court has decided to keep the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the list.
The court said the European Union had not provided any evidence showing that the Tamil Tigers were a risk after their military defeat in 2009. “The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of the continued freezing of the LTTE’s funds,” it said.
A lower court in its 2014 judgement had ruled that Hamas be removed from the terrorism blacklist and the sanctions on the rebel group be lifted. The court had contented that the travel ban on Hamas imposed by the member states of the European Union was based on media reports and that the decision was not made by a “competent authority”, Reuters reported.
However, the top court on Wednesday overturned the 2014 ruling. “The Council may maintain a person or an entity on the list if it concludes that there is an ongoing risk of that person or entity being involved in the terrorist activities that justified their initial listing,” the ECJ said.
The terrorism list was created by the EU following the attack on World Trade Centre in the United States in 2001. It includes 22 organisations and 13 individual. Hamas was put on the list in 2003, while LTTE was listed in 2006.