Canadian linked to Tigers sentenced to ‘time served’

Ramanan Mylvaganam has been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

A US federal judge has sentenced a Canadian to “time served” for his role in a plot to equip LTTE, setting the stage for his return to Toronto in the coming weeks.

The sentence was handed down Monday in US District Court, said Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, NY, where Ramanan Mylvaganam had been detained since 2009.

Mylvaganam, 35, was arrested in Ontario in 2006 and extradited to Brooklyn, where he was wanted for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

He pleaded guilty February 8. “They’re going to let him go in about a couple of weeks,” said his brother, Ragavan Kathiravetpillai. “We’re so happy, we just can’t believe it. We didn’t know what was going to happen and this is just great news.” U.S. prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term for Mylvaganam, arguing he committed “a gravely serious offence” by conspiring with co-accused Suresh Sriskandarajah to procure equipment for the Tigers.

But the defence successfully appealed for time served on the grounds the Sri Lankan civil war at the heart of the case was over and the crime was an “isolated transgression” by a defendant with an otherwise clean record.