Judge Azura Alwi made the ruling following the application by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Firdaus Abu Hanifah, when the matter came up for mention.
Firdaus said the prosecution was relying on Section 177A (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer the case.
“The six could also make their bail applications before a High Court judge then,” Azura said.
Lawyers Ramkarpal Singh, RT Rajasekaran, Syafiqah Sofian and Matthews Jude, who appeared for the accused, did not object to the transfer application.
Five of the accused – S Chandru, 38, a former CEO of a Melaka state-owned company, technician S Arivainthan, 27, storekeeper S Thanagaraj, 26, security guard M Pumugan, 29, and secondary school teacher Sundram Renggan @ Rengasamy, 52 – were charged before Azura on Oct 31.
They had allegedly given support to LTTE using the accounts under the name Tamilrasan Sivam, Ariventhan Subramaniam, Pumugan Tamilan, Chandru Suparmaniam and Elilan Elilan, respectively.
The five were said to have been found to have committed the offence between Jan 11 and Oct 11,2019 at the Counter-Terrorism Division (E8) office in Bukit Aman.
The charge is framed under Section 130J (1)(a) of the Penal Code, which carries a natural life imprisonment or up to a 30 year jail term or fine, if convicted.
The sixth person – taxi driver V Balamurugan, 37 – was charged with a similar offence before Sessions judge Azman Ahmad on Oct 31. His case was mentioned before Azura as Azman is on leave.
The six, together with another six that included Melaka’s Gadek assemblyman G Saminathan and Seremban Jaya assemblyman P Gunasekaran, are facing mulitiple charges here and in five other states.
All are held at Sungai Buloh prison pending disposal of their cases.
On Nov 29, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the court could consider bail applications from accused charged with terror-related offences.
LTTE was labelled a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act in February 2014.
Sri Lanka, the United States, Canada, and India have also labelled LTTE as a terrorist group.