LTTE terror suspect gets award!

OTTAWA, Saturday (AFP): A Canadian suspected of using his studies as a cover for terrorist activities was awarded a 5,000 dollar prize for his entrepreneurial talent by a Canadian university, The Globe and Mail reported Friday.

Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, was arrested in August 2006 in Ontario at the request of US authorities who accuse him of being an undercover agent for Sri Lanka’s separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, listed in the US and Canada as a terrorist group.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time accused Sriskandarajah of trying to obtain thousands of dollars’ worth of military-use software he claimed he needed for his engineering program at Waterloo University.

He is also accused of money-laundering and using some fellow university students as couriers to smuggle cash and material to the Tamil Tigers.

Sriskandarajah was released on parole after his arrest and is awaiting the outcome of his extradition hearing. Meanwhile, he is studying for an MBA at Wilfrid Laurier University, at Waterloo, and has done so well that he has become the first winner of the university’s “CIBC leaders of entrepreneurship award,” which includes a 5,000 dollar prize.

“Education is important to me and my supportive family. Therefore I decided to return to school to make the best use of my free time with an optimistic hope for the future,” Sriskandarajah told a local newspaper recently.