Tiger fund-raiser jailed in Canada

A judge sentenced a Tiger fund-raiser to six months in jail in Vancouver on Friday after the man pleaded guilty to raising money in Canada to help support the Tigers in Sri Lanka.

“This is a serious offence,” said Justice Robert Powers, noting the “great harm to all Sri Lankans” from the violence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Prapaharan Thambithurai (46) was the first person to be charged under new Canadian legislation against financing foreign terrorist organisations. He had been on bail since shortly after police arrested him in Vancouver in 2008.

He pleaded guilty in the British Columbia Supreme Court earlier this week to one charge of “providing financial services, knowing that they will benefit a terrorist group, namely the LTTE.”

In 2009, Sri Lankan Government forces crushed the Tigers, ending a 30-year conflict. The judge, acknowledging there was no precedent in the case, denied requests by defence lawyers for a three-year suspended sentence, and by the prosecution for two years in jail. “I’m not satisfied that a suspended sentence would meet the needs of deterrence,” said Powers, adding that Canada attracts refugees because of the country’s “civility and respect for the rule of law.”

Powers said that when police arrested Thambithurai in 2008 in this west coast metropolis, he was carrying two donations of 300 and 600 dollars, 25 pledges of support for a Tamil “uprising fund,” and material promoting the LTTE, including calendars and CDs. - AFP