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Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - 6.54 GMT

Tamil-Canadian student leader was LTTE VIP

 

Photos of a former Canadian Tamil student's association leader handling and firing guns at a LTTE camp have been unsealed by the United States prosecutors in advance of his sentencing on terrorism charges.

The photos show Sathajhan Sarachandran who was once national president of the Canadian Tamil students association holding a machine gun and aiming a rifle while uniformed LTTE terrorists look on, says a report obtained by the National Post.

RCMP officers found the pictures during a search of Sarachandran's residence in Scarborough. The search was conducted at the request of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was investigating his involvement in an arms smuggling ring.

The 29-year-old computer science student has since pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism and conspiracy to buy surface-to-air missiles for the LTTE. He faces a possible life term at his sentencing on Oct. 6.

Another Canadian, Nadarasa Yogarasa, is also scheduled for sentencing that day. Sahilal Sabaratnam, the former communications director of the Canadian Tamil Congress, is to be sentenced on Nov. 13. Three more Canadians have been charged and are awaiting extradition to the United States

Documents of the federal prosecutors in preparation for the sentencing hearing detail the results of the RCMP's search of Sarachandran's home for the first time. In one of the photos seized in Toronto, Sarachandran is seen aboard a ship that is flying the flag of the Sea Tigers.

The RCMP search also turned up LTTE propaganda and documents, a desktop computer, laptop, jump drive and a letter in which Sarachandran, alias "Satha," identified himself as the Canadian coordinator of the Tamil Youth Organization, which the prosecutors said was controlled by the LTTE. "During the search, the RCMP found substantial evidence of Satha's provision of material support to the LTTE," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell wrote.

The prosecutors also released transcripts of several recorded conversations in which Sarachandran appeared to speak candidly about the LTTE's support network in Toronto. "Money is not a problem," Sarachandran said during a July 31, 2006, meeting in Long Island, N.Y., with an informant posing as an arms dealer.

Later, he discussed methods used to raise money in Canada. "More or less in all the shops they have a percentage system," he said. "They have collected a lot of money from a lot of people in that manner."

He said that in Canada, there were "covert people" unknown to intelligence officials, whom he called the "four letters," possibly in reference to CSIS or the RCMP. "The four letters in our country is not a problem; four letters meaning the intelligence people don't know about these guys.

"These are covert people and not the flag holding type. They are backstage. They are not connected to anything at all; just employed in very good jobs or professional fields like electronics, engineering, etc...

"They are everywhere."

But he said there had been "problems" since April, 2006. That was the month the Conservative government put the LTTE on Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations. Also that month, the RCMP raided the Montreal and Toronto branches of the World Tamil Movement, a suspected LTTE front. "They searched the premises of the organization," Sarachandran said.

A secret Canadian intelligence report released in July called Canada one of the LTTE's top sources of funding, providing up to $12-million a year.
 





 


 
   
   
   
   
   

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Last modified: August 18, 2009.

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