Canadian man pleads guilty in U.S. to supporting terrorism

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in the United States for supporting the Tamil Tigers.

Suresh Sriskandarajah, 32, faces a maximum of 15 years in prison after admitting Tuesday in a court in New York that he tried to acquire sophisticated military technology for the Tamil Tigers, a banned terrorist group in Canada and the U.S.

Sriskandarajah came to Canada from northern Sri Lanka as a boy and became an accomplished student in Waterloo, Ont., earning degrees from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

He was arrested in 2006 after a joint FBI-RCMP investigation and fought his extradition to the U.S. until December 2012, when he lost a Supreme Court of Canada appeal and was extradited.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says in a news release that Sriskandarajah and several co-conspirators helped research and acquire aviation equipment, submarine and warship design software, night vision equipment and communications technology.

The prosecutors say Sriskandarajah used students as couriers to smuggle items into Tamil Tiger-controlled territory in Sri Lanka and he helped the group launder its money in the U.S.