Several LTTE fundarisers including the alleged leader of the LTTE Dutch branch who forced Tamils in Netherlands to pay for the LTTE were arrested by the Netherlands authorities.

Dutch court authorities said the LTTE held these people in ‘a stranglehold’, forcing them to pay a ‘war tax’.

The investigation has been going on for two years.

Court documents, published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, said that the Tamil Tigers systematically extorted large sums of money from Dutch Tamils. If they refused, they were threatened with reprisals.

Tens of thousands of Tamils live in the Netherlands. The majority came to the country after the Tamil separatist war broke out in the mid-1980’s. The Tamil Tigers have been listed as a terrorist organisation in EU-countries such as the Netherlands since 2006, the Dutch newspaper said.

The Netherlands is not the first European country where Tamils have been arrested for money laundering and extortion. Last year, Tamils in Switzerland and the UK were arrested for the same reason. While the Dutch Tamils are still awaiting trial, in the UK and Switzerland several people have already been convicted, Dutch media reported.