LTTE case puts spotlight on laws against financing terrorism
May 11, 2010 10:07 am
Prapaharan Thambithurai, first in
Federal terrorism financing legislation will be on trial Tuesday when the
first person in
Prapaharan Thambithurai was charged in March, 2008, in
The court has been told that Mr. Thambithurai will enter a plea and will be
ready for sentencing. But neither the prosecution nor the defence have said how
Mr. Thambithurai intends to plead.
“I really cannot confirm anything other than we will find out [Tuesday]
morning at 10 o’clock in B.C. Supreme Court,” Dan Brien, a spokesman for the
Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said Monday in an interview.
“Until it happens in court I cannot make any guarantees that a person is
going to stand up and plead a certain way,” he said.
When Mr. Thambithurai was charged two years ago, his lawyer, Richard Peck,
said his client was actually raising funds for the World Tamil Movement, which
was not banned in
The
Mr. Peck did not return a phone call Monday.
The outcome of the B.C. case is being keenly watched by
If Mr. Thambithurai pleads guilty and receives a reduced sentence, the
terrorism financing legislation could come under intense criticism.
A plea arrangement would expose a glaring weakness in the legislation, said
John Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank
concentrating on terrorism, political extremism and organized crime.
“The legal standard to prove cases of international money laundering for
terrorist organizations is very, very difficult to achieve,” Mr. Thompson said
in an interview. “I can see where the Crown [prosecutor] would want to take the
shortcut,” he said.
Difficulty in obtaining a conviction was intended to push the prosecution
and the accused to reach a compromise, he said. “You are not really interested
in rounding up people who gave $100 to the Tamil Tigers. What you are really
interested in is access to wider knowledge about the terrorist groups, whether
it is Tamil Tigers or others,” Prof. Wark said.
The legislation was intended to help investigators find out more about
terrorist groups, their activities and those involved in the schemes, he said.
“The general feeling is that [prosecuting] terrorism financing is a way into
the heart of terrorism plots and terrorism groups, Prof. Wark said.
There is one financing conviction on the books since the legislation was
adopted in 2001, but that case did not involve a banned terrorist organization.
An al-Qaeda sympathizer in