Australian on terrorism charges met Tamil leader-court

MELBOURNE, July 11 (Reuters) An Australian man facing terrorism charges for being a member of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers had met the Tiger's leader and controlled 600,000 Australian dollars (517,200dollars) sent to the rebels, a prosecutor told a court today.

Arumugam Rajeevan, who was arrested in Sydney yesterday, appeared in Melbourne's Magistrate Court yesterday to formally face terrorism charges.

Rajeevan is charged with ''intentionally being a member of a terrorist organisation'', ''providing support or resources to a terrorist organisation'' and ''making an asset available to a proscribed entity''.

The charges carry maximum prison terms of 25, 10, and five years respectively.

Two other Australians appeared in a Melbourne court in May, charged with being members of the Tamil Tigers and offering the rebel group support using 2004 Asian tsunami relief funds.

Prosecutor Mark Dean told the court that Rajeevan, an accountant, controlled 600,000 Australian dollars collected by the Melbourne-based Tamil Coordinating Committee, which was sent to the Tamil Tigers, reported Australian Associated Press (AAP) from the court.

Rajeevan was a signatory to the coordinating committee's bank account, said the prosecutor.

In October 2003, Rajeevan went to Sri Lanka and met with the Tiger's reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, Dean said.

Prabhakaran has been convicted in absentia for the murder of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and a bombing in Colombo in 1996, which killed nearly 100 people.

The Tamil Tigers have waged a two-decade long civil war in Sri Lanka aimed at carving out an independent state for minority Tamils in the island nation.

Some 322 Tigers who have blown themselves up in suicide bombings since 1987, killing hundreds of mostly soldiers in a campaign for a separate state in the north and east.

Rajeevan did not apply for bail, but his lawyer Sam Norton foreshadowed an application next week. The two other men charged with being members of the Tamil Tigers have been denied bail.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge adjourned the case to August 23.

Nineteen Australians already face terrorism charges.

Australia, a staunch US ally, has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil, but tougher anti-terrorism laws were imposed after the September 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.

REUTERS KK MIR KP1447