Anatomy of a terror finance probe

At 9:22 p.m. on March 14, 2008, members of the RCMP's counter-terrorism squad in British Columbia pulled over a gray Mazda 3 and arrested the driver for financing terrorism.

It was a first for Canada.

For more than a decade, Sri Lanka's Tigers had fundraised in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to finance their liberation struggle, but this was the first time anyone had been criminally charged over it.

That case ended on Friday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver when Prapaharan Thambithurai, a 46-year-old Sri Lankan-born Canadian from Maple, Ont., was sentenced to six months to be served at an Ontario prison.

Justice Robert Powers said refugees from war-torn countries should be able to resettle in Canada free from the pressures of the homeland. But Thambithurai's wife, Uthaya, insisted her husband had "nothing to do with any terrorist activities."

While Thambithurai's guilty plea means there will be no trial, court documents and interviews show the case revolved around a single $600 donation. But such donations all added up: federal officials estimate that Tiger bagmen raised $10- to $12-million a year in Canada in much the same way.

A home satellite installer from the suburban belt north of Toronto, Thambithurai flew to Vancouver on Air Canada on March 11, 2008, documents show. He rented a compact car from Avis and spent the night at the Quality Inn Airport Hotel.

It was a homecoming of sorts.

Thambithurai had lived in Vancouver after fleeing Sri Lanka, his wife said. He studied accounting at the University of B.C. and became president of the Eelam Tamil Association of B.C.

"I like Prapa," said Sri Thevendram, who met Thambithurai in 1996 when they were neighbours in Vancouver. Like Thambithurai, Mr. Thevendram was an ethnic Tamil who had fled Sri Lanka's brutal civil war.

While he was not a rebel, he said he supported them. "I knew a lot of LTTE members," he said, using the acronym for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. "They were my friends, my relatives."

Thevendram fled to Canada in 1993 and worked two jobs. He started at 4 a.m. and put in 16 to 18 hours a day as a baker. He said he was so busy he had no time to register his children for school but then he met Thambithurai, who took care of it for him. "We became family friends," he said.

So when "Prapa" showed up at his house in Burnaby, B.C., two years ago and said he was collecting donations for the dispossessed Tamils of Sri Lanka, Thevendram did not hesitate. He gave his friend $600 in cash.

"No country helps our people, so we like to help," said Mr. Thevendram. He said the donation he gave to Thambithurai was for humanitarian aid such as food and medicine. There was no mention of bankrolling the Tigers, whom Thevendram said he stopped supporting once they were outlawed by Canada in 2006.

The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team opened an investigation into Thambithurai two days after he landed in Vancouver. At first, they could not find him but they finally spotted his car outside a home in Vancouver.

The officers followed him to the Nooru Mahal restaurant. They watched as he visited an apartment building, carrying a black back, and then another residence before stopping at the Thurkadevi Temple in Burnaby.

From there he drove to New Westminster. He had been under surveillance for more than four hours when police finally stopped his car at an intersection - next to the Justice Institute of B.C.

The black bag was on the passenger seat. Inside it police found 25 pledge forms entitled Tamil Uprising Fund. A message from Velupillai Prabhakaran was at the top of each form.

"This is a prideful historical time when the Tamil race has risen up in the path of liberation and we are requesting the help and great support of the world Tamils," it read.

Also in the car were CDs containing photos of "freedom fighters" and calendars featuring photos of Prabhakaran, the Tigers logo and biographies of dead fighters.

"We dedicate this calendar to the thousands of Liberation Tigers who gave up their precious life and embraced a martyr's death," it read.At the RCMP detachment in Richmond, Thambithurai told police he had come to B.C. to collect money. He said he intended to give it to the World Tamil Movement once he returned to Ontario, and admitted that some of it would make its way to the LTTE.

"Put it this way my friend, okay," he said, according to an Admissions of Fact filed in court. "I'm sending my hundred dollars to go back home okay ... like 50% may get, may go to the Tigers, 50% may go to my people.

"The thing is I know, like 100% is not going to go to the, uh, people I'm giving. It's going to go somewhere to LTTE administration or for some reason."

"You know you're giving money to the LTTE," the constable said.

"Yeah, indirectly," he said.

Indirectly or not, since 2002 it has been illegal to collect money "knowing that, in whole or part," it could be used for the benefit of a terrorist group. The Canadian government had outlawed the Tigers as a terrorist group in 2006.

Three months after the arrest, Ottawa also placed the World Tamil Movement on its terrorist list.

"The various offices of the WTM in Canada transfer funds to bank accounts in Sri Lanka destined to support the terrorist activities of the LTTE," the listing reads.

"The leadership of the WTM acts at the direction of leaders of the LTTE. WTM representatives canvas areas in Canada with large Tamil populations demanding large donations on behalf of the LTTE. Refusals to contribute often lead to threats and intimidation."

The war is over now.

It came to a sudden and decisive end a year ago next week, when government forces surrounded the Tigers on a desolate beach facing the Bay of Bengal and wiped out their leaders.

After years of investigation, the RCMP has seized property linked to the LTTE, helped deport former rebels posing as refugees and identified millions in Canadian bank transfers to Tiger accounts overseas, but the $600 collected by Thambithurai may end up as the only act of fundraising to result in a criminal conviction.

National Post, Canada