COLOMBO, Oct 31: A Sri Lankan court on Thursday sentenced the leader of the Tamil Tigers to 200 years jail in absentia over a 1996 truck bomb attack as peace talks between the government and the rebel group began in Thailand.

The Colombo High Court found Velupillai Prabhakaran, the supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and three other rebels guilty of masterminding a Jan 31, 1996, assault on the central bank.

The court gave Prabhakaran 200 years of jail for the attack, in which the Tigers rammed a truck loaded with explosives into the central bank in Colombo, killing 91 people and leaving hundreds more injured.

The judge found Prabhakaran guilty of 51 counts including murder and the destruction of state property. The court instructed the police’s criminal investigators to arrest the guerrilla leader and confiscate his property.

Delivering the 127-page ruling, Judge Sarath Ambepitiya said he was “handing the sentence so such hideous people can be isolated from civil society.”

The sentence was announced just as the LTTE and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government opened a second round of Norwegian-sponsored peace talks in Thailand to try to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has left more than 60,000 people dead.

The elusive Prabhakaran, 47, is closely guarded by loyal rebel cadres who view him nearly as divine. He already has several convictions to his name in Sri Lanka.

Prabhakaran is also wanted by India over the May 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The court ruling said Sri Lankan authorities had arrested two suspects after the central bank bombing who admitted attending a last supper with Prabhakaran. The rebel supremo traditionally holds send-off dinners to honour cadres about to kill themselves in attacks.

The Tamil Tigers have carried out 247 suicide attacks, with victims including Gandhi and Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa.

The current Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, narrowly escaped a Tiger assassination bid in 1999 and has accused the government of making too many concessions to the rebels during the peace process.

The high court acquitted Prabhakaran’s reputed top intelligence aide, Pottu Amman, of charges over the bank attack, saying there was not proper evidence against him.

The LTTE is considered a terrorist group by Australia, Britain, Canada, India and the United States — all homes to sizable Tamil communities. But a ban on the Tigers was lifted in Sri Lanka in September to meet a rebel condition on coming to the negotiating table.—AFP