Five ethnic Tamil men were given up to six years in prison by the District Court in The Hague. They were found guilty of helping finance LTTE with millions of euros, as part of their battle for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka, Radio Netherlands reported.

Prosecutors had accused the five men, all of whom now have Dutch citizenship, of raising funds for the separatist LTTE by extorting money from the Sri Lankans in the Netherlands by blackmail and under threat.

Prosecutors also alleged money laundering and incitement to violence. The men were charged of overseeing an international criminal and terrorist organisation involved in arson, bombings and murder, and prosecutors had demanded sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

On Friday, the court convicted the men, all in leadership positions in the Dutch branch of the LTTE, of supporting a criminal organisation. By raising funds for it while they knew the organisation was on an EU ban list.

Therefore, the court ruled that the five violated a Dutch law that prohibits the support of banned organisations. Besides, the men ran illegal lotteries to raise money on violation of Dutch gambling laws.