Another Tiger defendant convicted in US

Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa (37) the last defendant in the plot to supply weapons to the LTTE pleaded guilty yesterday (10) in Baltimore to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempted exportation of arms and munitions, quoting the PRNewswire, Media Center for National Security reported yesterday.

The announcement was made by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

"Mr. Varatharasa is the last defendant to be convicted in this plot to attempt to obtain military weapons in violation of American Law. We are committed to using all available legal tools to prevent terrorism" quoting U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein the news report said.

Varatharasa had conspired with the Haji Subandi, Hanifa Osman and Erick Wotalu to export fire arms, machine guns, surface-to-air missiles and night vision goggles to the Tamil Tigers better known as the LTTE.

Varatharasa faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and 10 years in prison for attempted exportation of arms and munitions.

Haji Subandi (69) an Indonesian who pleaded guilty on March 8th 2007 face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; 20 years in prison on each account of two counts of money laundering; 10 years in prison for attempted exportation of arms and munitions.

Erick Wotalu and Haniffa Bin Osman both pleaded guilty and face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support and 20 years in prison for money laundering. William D. Chase, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office said that the FBI will continue to work to prevent any person from using the US to raise funds or procure arms to commit acts of terrorism.