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Platinum Member Username: PlymouthCanada Post Number: 13887 Registered: Jan-08 | Canadian Satellite Dish Installer Guilty of Funding Terrorist Group Toronto-area man pleads guilty to funding Tamil Tigers Toronto -- Prapaharan Thambithurai is a satellite dish installer and father of three. He lives next to the Canada's Wonderland theme park and considers himself a "true Canadian." On Tuesday, he admitted he was also a terrorist financier. The 46-year-old resident of Maple, Ont., pleaded guilty to "providing financial services knowing that they will benefit a terrorist group, namely the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," the Public Prosecution Service said in a news release. He is the first person in Canada to be convicted of a terrorism offence simply for fundraising. He is also the first convicted of financing Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, which the RCMP says raised millions in Canada. A statement of facts read in British Columbia Supreme Court yesterday said Mr. Thambithurai had collected $600 worth of donations as well as pledge forms between March 11 and 14, 2008. While he said the money was for humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka, he also told police he knew at least some of it would go to the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist organization under Canadian law. Reached by phone in Vancouver yesterday, he declined to comment ahead of his sentencing on Friday. He faces a maximum 10 years in prison, but the Crown is seeking two years while his lawyer wants a suspended sentence. Known as "Prapa," Mr. Thambithurai immigrated to Canada in 1988 and soon became president of the Eelam Tamil Association of B.C. He was also active in the World Tamil Movement (WTM), which the RCMP says is a front used to raise money for the rebels, who also go by the acronym LTTE. "In Canada, the WTM is an LTTE 'front' organization," Const. Paul Huston wrote in a warrant used to search the group's Vancouver office in 2005. "Members of the WTM hold fundraisers that operate under the guise of 'cultural events.' "They advertise humanitarian objectives like medical relief and children's orphanages to avoid undue attention. Members of the WTM sell merchandise such as books, compact discs, flags, clothing, newspapers, pamphlets and videos to raise funds. They are sold at community events as well as selected business locations. The proceeds are then funnelled back to the LTTE." The World Tamil Movement has been under scrutiny in Canada since at least 1995, when its coordinator was arrested in Toronto for allegedly raising money for the rebels. He was ordered deported but remains in Canada. In 2002, after terrorist financing was outlawed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, an RCMP investigation found the WTM had raised millions in Canada and sent it to overseas to accounts linked to the rebels. Police searches of the WTM offices in Montreal and Toronto also turned up letters the rebels had sent asking for millions to be raised to pay for weapons and the "liberation struggle." Prosecutors have seized the WTM's assets. In addition, a U.S. federal court sentenced three Canadians to lengthy prison terms this year for attempting to buy $1-million worth of AK-47 assault rifles and Russian SA-18 surface-to-air missiles for the rebels. The Tamil Tigers were separatist guerrillas who fought for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, but their frequent suicide bombings and political assassinations, as well as their aggressive fundraising methods in the West, landed them on international terrorist lists. Last May, government forces surrounded the rebels and wiped out their leaders, bringing the war to a decisive end. Since then there have been repeated calls for an independent war crimes investigation. A multi-faith service was held on Parliament Hill yesterday to remember civilians killed during the final stage of the conflict. Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=3015259 |