Colombo: A British court Friday sentenced the controversial breakaway Tamil Tiger leader, Colonel Karuna, to nine months in prison for travelling on a false Sri Lankan passport.

Confirming the sentence handed out by the Isleworth Crown Court in West London, a spokesman of Karuna's political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), said that the party was in consultation with lawyers to challenge the sentence.

"It is a sad development and it comes at a time when the TMVP registered itself as a political party in Sri Lanka and is facing elections to nine local bodies in Batticaloa district," spokesman Azad Mowlana told IANS by phone from Batticaloa.

"But we will not allow this to demoralize us," he added. According to a Nov 7,2007 report of the Morning Leader, a Colombo-based daily, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna arrived in Britain from Sri Lanka on a false Sri Lankan diplomatic passport Sep 18.

The British authorities arrested him in early November. The paper further said that the passport was issued in the name of a government official "Kokila Gunawardene" who was supposedly travelling to Britain to attend a meeting on environmental issues.

However, the Sri Lankan government denied that it had asked the immigration department to issue a diplomatic passport to Gunawardene and the British High Commission to issue him a visa.

When the detention news became public, human rights groups such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded the British authorities try Karuna for war crimes.

The HRW accused Karuna of kidnapping and forcibly recruiting children for his militant group, TMVP, murdering political opponents and extorting money from businessmen.

Karuna was the Batticaloa and Amparai district leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) till he split with the LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran in March 2004.

Prior to Karuna's departure from Sri Lanka, the TMVP group had virtually split, with the second-in-command, Pillaiyaan, emerging as a challenger. But according to political observers, the Sri Lankan government managed to bring about a deal between Karuna and Pillaiyaan, which allowed Karuna to leave the country.

Earlier this week, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake publicly criticized the TMVP for carrying arms while fighting elections. He said that the local bodies elections in Batticaloa district, due in March, could not be free and fair if one party was armed.

He also said that the climate of armed intimidation would not be conducive for business investments in Batticaloa district, which was crying for development after years of war.

Source : IANS