Sri Lankan pleads not guilty to weapons charges
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan man accused of trying to send money and weapons including surface-to-air missiles to the country's Tamil Tiger rebels pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday in a U.S. court. Thavarajah Pratheepan, 32, was arrested in Indonesia and extradited to the United States in the past few days, said Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Pratheepan was being held without bail and will reappear before U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie in Brooklyn Federal Court on Jan. 18, Nardoza said. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted. U.S. officials say the case is connected to the arrest of more than a dozen people last August across the United States following an undercover operation spanning more than 10 countries that probed support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamel Eelam. No trial dates have been set for any of the suspects, Nardoza said. The rebel group, which has fought for two decades for an ethnic Tamil homeland, was designated by the United States in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization. The suspects traveled between Canada, the United States and Britain and are accused of agreeing to buy military equipment including shoulder-held surface missiles to shoot down Sri Lankan military jets, according to a court document. The document also accuses the suspects of raising money through front charitable organizations, money laundering and conspiring to help the rebel group bribe its way off the Foreign Terrorist Organization list.
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