Petition for Rehearing filed in U.S Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 1999, 06:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam today filed a petition for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, said Ramsey Clark, Lawrence W Schilling and Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, the Lawyers representing the LTTE, in a press release issued on August 9th.

On June 25th, the Court denied the Petition filed by the LTTE challenging its designation as a Terrorist organization by the Department of State under the provisions of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

The Petition for Rehearing seeks to have these provisions invalidated in their entirety, the release further said.

The press release added, "The Court has acknowledged that it is 'forbidden' and has 'no way of evaluating' materials compiled by the Secretary, reaches 'no judgement whatsoever' regarding truth or falsity, that the entire record is 'hearsay' never subjected to 'adversarial testing' without opportunity to present 'counter-evidence.'

"The judicial review provision of the statute promises protection of rights in accordance with fairness, justice and truth in the grand and generous tradition of American jurisprudence. But the Court's decision in the instant matter has rendered the judicial review provision a nullity."

According to the Press release, the LTTE further argued that the Anti-terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act as construed, injected the federal judiciary into the midst of the most emotional, potentially violent misinformation and propaganda-laden international political issue with the sole effect of placing a non-discretionary judicial approval on an executive action.

In its original Petition, which was denied, challenging the designation, LTTE identified itself as the de facto government of the Tamil Nation and stated that it engaged in an armed campaign due to the failure of peaceful means and the absence of a forum to realise the Tamils' right to self-determination. LTTE also said that its actions are not a threat to U.S interests.