Dead Tamil Tigers chief at centre of Swiss donation scandal

A screenshot from the controversial video that has been causing a stir in the Tamil community. TAMIL OLI MEDIA

Former Tamil Tigers fighters living in Switzerland have been accused of collecting money for their dead boss. Hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs are reportedly at stake, reports Swiss public television, SRF.

“I lost CHF380,000 ($427,000).” In a storage room somewhere in Switzerland, Arun tells his story to SRF. His name has been changed for the television programme, as he wants to remain anonymous to ensure his own protection. Arun recounts how he handed over this large sum of money to a Tamil woman who claimed to be collecting money for the Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who died in 2009.

“She said Prabhakaran was still alive,” says Arun. “We believed her and continued to give her money.” He also asked many of his friends to make donations.

SRF has met Tamils ​​who claim to have been cheated by the same woman, who allegedly collected hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs in false donations. Some of the victims intend to file a criminal complaint in Switzerland.

One of them is Sagayathasan Thevaruul, a newspaper delivery man who lives in canton Thurgau in northeastern Switzerland. He claims the woman owes him CHF50,000. “She said she needed money for her sick child,” he explains. He got into debt because of this and now has to work two jobs.

Spotted online

Thevaruul and other Tamils recognised the alleged fundraiser in an online video in which a woman claims to be the daughter of Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran, who was killed in Sri Lanka’s civil war. In the video, the woman appeals to exiled Tamils: “The wealthy parts of our nation have a duty to lift our fellow citizens in Sri Lanka out of poverty.”

Prabhakaran was a figurehead in the civil war between the Tamils ​​and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. Photos also exist of his death. But some Tamils ​​still hope for the return of their leader and his family. Members of the Tamil community say the alleged fraudster is playing on this hope and collecting money by pretending to be the leader’s daughter.

Rajankanth Anthonypillai is one of them. He fought in Sri Lanka and knew the Tamil Tigers leader well. “Prabhakaran is like a god to me. I cannot accept that someone is collecting money in his name,” he says.

Alleged fraudster defends herself

SRF met the Tamil woman who has been accused of fraud. She denies all the allegations but was not prepared to speak on camera. The whole story is just lies, she says. She denies she is the woman in the video or ever having collected money – for herself or for the dead Tamil leader. She plans to take legal action against those who accuse her.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the video and a photo of the accused woman, SRF was able to show that the woman in the video who claims to be Prabhakaran’s daughter is most probably the accused Tamil woman.

Money for your own country

The video has been published on a Swiss YouTube channel. The man behind it is the former Swiss finance director of the Tamil Tigers, Jeyapalan Chelliah, known as Abdullah. He claims that Prabhakaran is still alive. In a telephone conversation passed to SRF, Abdullah clearly tries to persuade a Tamil to collect money. “If we want our own country, we need the money for it,” he says. Abdullah denies having made the call.

He says he doesn’t need money, but political support. Tamils ​​are still being oppressed in Sri Lanka and nothing has happened for 14 years, says Abdullah.

Who are the Tamil Tigers?

From 1983 to 2009, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka fought against oppression by the Sinhalese government and for an independent Tamil state. They carried out numerous suicide attacks and are considered a terrorist organisation in the European Union and the United States.

The Tamil Tigers were also supported by Tamils ​​in Switzerland. According to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), CHF15 million flowed directly from Switzerland to Sri Lanka by 2009 to finance the civil war. However, in 2019 the Swiss Federal Court ruled that the Tamil Tigers were not a criminal organisation and acquitted 12 people of charges filed by Swiss prosecutors.

Adapted from German by Simon Bradley