Canadian charged in Tiger financing bust

VANCOUVER: For the first time in Canadian history, a man in Vancouver has been charged with financing terrorists, for allegedly raising money for the Tigers.

"The funds were allegedly raised for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers) which is a listed terrorist organisation in Canada,'' said RCMP Supt. Lloyde Plante, of B.C.'s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET).

Prapaharan (Prapa) Thambithurai, 45, who lives in Toronto but was arrested last Friday in Vancouver, is charged with providing or making available property or services for terrorist purposes.

When asked to elaborate on the charge, Plante said: "He was soliciting funding that was to be utilised to support the LTTE, that was the allegation."

Police allege the funds were being collected from members of Vancouver's 6, 000- to 8,000-person Sri Lankan community.

Plante referred to the people who made the donations as the "victims'' in the case, but wouldn't comment when asked if they knew the money was going to support the Tigers.

The police investigation continues, but Plante wouldn't say whether more suspects are being targeted.

Plante, who is with INSET's anti-terrorist financial investigation unit, said he could not elaborate further about the case because the charge is now before the courts. Thambithurai was arrested Friday night and was remanded in custody. He will make his first court appearance in Vancouver Provincial Court.

Plante wouldn't say how much money was raised or where it was sent. Thambithurai, who is a Canadian citizen, may have been in Vancouver as long ago as August 1996, because a man claiming to live in Vancouver who had the same name as Thambithurai wrote a scathing letter to Maclean's magazine then.

The letter said the RCMP and CSIS had "recruited some shady characters living in the murky field of intelligence gathering and crime'' who were "painting a picture of Sri Lankans living in this country as guerrillas engaging in criminal activities.'' Plante said the charges announced on Monday were "not specifically'' related to a police raid in 2005 at the Vancouver office of the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a group the RCMP alleges is financing the Tigers.

Last September, the Vancouver Sun reported that there were three investigations across Canada - in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal - to determine whether the Tigers had been illegally raising funds here to help their independence campaign.

Vancouver Sun