Sri Lankan ex-Tiger boss returns after UK jail term

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Renegade former Tamil Tiger leader Karuna Amman returned to Sri Lanka on Thursday after a six-month jail term in Britain for immigration offences, a spokesman for his breakaway party said.

He was arrested in November 2007 in London and pleaded guilty to carrying a passport in a false name.

Rights groups had hoped he would face additional war crimes charges but British authorities released him in May, saying there was not enough evidence to convict him of other offences.

"Our leader, Karuna Amman, has arrived into the country this evening from London," Azad Moulana, a spokesman for Tamil Tiger breakaway party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), told Reuters.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Defence Spokesman and Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion, Keheliya Rambukwella, earlier said if Karuna returned the authorities would deal with him according to the law.

When contacted, Police Spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera told Reuters he was unaware of Karuna's arrival.

Karuna was the Tiger's eastern commander until he broke away from the rebels, who have been fighting a protracted civil for an independent state in the north and east since 1983.

After his split he mounted hit and run attacks on his former comrades, founding a new faction known as the TMVP that was widely seen as government-backed.