Three jailed in US for attempt to buy weapons for LTTE

BALTIMORE: A retired Indonesian Marine Corps general was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison in the US for trying to funnel weapons to the LTTE.

Erick Wotulo 61, conspired with three other men to export machine guns, surface-to-air missiles and other military hardware to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) federal prosecutors say. The State Department designated the LTTE a terrorist organisation in 1997.

According to a plea agreement, the four men contacted an undercover business in Maryland and sent an itemised wish list of weapons they wanted to acquire for the Tigers.

They arranged to transfer money into an undercover bank account to pay for the weapons. Wotulo pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist organization and money laundering.

He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and three years of supervised release, and he will be deported after his prison term ends, federal prosecutors said.

Also convicted in the scheme were another Indonesian Haji Subandi, a Singaporean Haniffa Bin Osman and a Sri Lankan, Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa.

Subandi was sentenced to three years and one month in prison and Varatharasa received a four-year, nine-month sentence. Osman is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

The Associated Press