London: Renegade LTTE leader V Muralitharan, better known as Colonel Karuna, was sentenced to nine-month imprisonment by a UK court for identity fraud. A former close aide of LTTE Supremo V Prabhakaran, Karuna Amman parted ways with the Tamil Tigers in 2004 to fight alongside government forces.

He was arrested in London on Nov 2 for carrying an apparently genuine Sri Lankan diplomatic passport issued under a false name. Karuna told the Isleworth Crown Court in West London yesterday said he had received the false diplomatic passport from the Sri Lankan Government. He said the Defence Secretary, who is also the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, had arranged the documents for him.

The British Foreign Office had in December expressed concern over how Karuna acquired a passport under a false name. Rajapakse has denied that his government issued Karuna the passport and said the dissident leader could have secured some "diplomatic endorsement". The Tigers accuse the Sri Lankan Government of protecting Karuna and his loyalists to carry out attacks against the LTTE.

Karuna Amman, who founded the Tamil Makkal Vidhuthalai Pullikal (TMVP, was sentenced to nine months in jail under the Identity Cards Act after he pleaded guilty. Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are demanding that he be tried for war crimes as humanitarian agencies operating in Sri Lanka s eastern province have accused Karuna s faction of abductions, killings and recruiting child soldiers.

Source : PTI