Prapaharan Thambithurai, 46, pleaded guilty to raising $600 for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He also collected pledges for another $2,000 from Sri Lankans in the Vancouver area, where the Maple, Ont. man was arrested two years ago, Globe and Mail reported yesterday.

Federal prosecutor Martha Devlin said in a submission on sentencing in B.C. Supreme Court that Mr. Thambithurai admitted to police after he was arrested that a portion of the money he raised for Tamil humanitarian aid would go to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Mr. Justice Robert Powers of the B.C. Supreme Court said he will sentence Mr. Thambithurai on Friday. The maximum sentence for fundraising for a banned terrorist group is 10 years. The law does not set a minimum sentence.

The court case was the first legal test of controversial terrorist financing legislation introduced almost 10 years ago. Mr. Thambithurai was charged in March of 2008.

The Canadian government in 2006, banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam under the country’s draconian anti-terrorist laws.