Sunday, January 13, 2008

LTTE conspirator sentenced to 57 months in US

A US District Court has sentenced a Sri Lankan to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to provide arms, ammunition and other military materiel to the LTTE.

The sentence was imposed on Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, a Sri Lankan resident in the USA, by US District Judge Catherine C. Blake Baltimore, Maryland yesterday.

US Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announced that Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa has been sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempted exportation of arms and munitions.

Varatharasa will be deported from the United States after serving his sentence of incarceration.

Rosenstein said: “We are using undercover operations targeting people who attempt to obtain military weapons in violation of American law and all other available legal tools to prevent terrorism.”

According to his plea agreement, from April to September 29, 2006 Varatharasa conspired with Haji Subandi, Haniffa Osman and Erick Wotulo to export state-of-the-art firearms, machine guns and ammunition, surface to air missiles, night vision goggles and other military weapons to the LTTE to be used to fight against Sri Lankan Government Forces.

No comments: