(26 Apr 2007)
1. Wide shot of court house
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Charles Hochbaum, Kandasamy's defence attorney:
"It's all a question of how you define a terrorist organisation, and this government seems to define any organisation that wants to have freedom for its country as a terrorist organisation. It's kind of mind boggling in light of where we started from."
3. Court room sketch
4. Close-up of sketch showing Karunakaran Kandasamy
5. Close-up of sketch showing Kandasamy with Charles Hochbaum behind him
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Charles Hochbaum, Kandasamy's defence attorney:
"They're fighting for freedom in their own country and they're coming to the United States, much like the IRA (Irish Republican Army) did raising money here for years. I don't remember people being prosecuted for that. Seems that we pick and choose who we think should be allowed to fight for their own freedom."
7. Tilt down of court house
STORYLINE:
The top US representative of Sri Lankan rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), orchestrated a covert campaign to finance its escalating conflict with military forces in Sri Lanka, federal prosecutors in New York said on Wednesday.
Karunakaran Kandasamy was arrested and awaiting arraignment on charges of providing material support to the Tamil Tigers.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
"They're fighting for freedom in their own country and they're coming to the United States much like the IRA (Irish Republican Army) did raising money here for years. I don't remember people being prosecuted for that," Kandasamy's attorney, Charles Hochbaum, said.
Hochbaum wouldn't say whether or not Kandasmy had raised any money for the Tamil Tigers.
Kandasamy, as director of the American branch of the Tamil Tigers based in New York City, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, court papers claim.
He also allegedly arranged for rebel leaders in Sri Lanka to meet supporters "with backgrounds in engineering, technology, weaponry, medicine and scientific fields".
The arrest was the latest attempt by US authorities to cut off support for the group, which according to court papers has engaged "in terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings and political assassinations" while fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the island nation's north and east.
Last year, its emissaries were charged in New York with conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles.
Prosecutors also alleged the defendants tried to bribe US officials to remove the group from the terrorism list.
Tamil rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's 3.1 million (m) Tamil minority after decades of discrimination.
The Norwegian-brokered ceasefire signed in 2002 that ended more than two decades of fighting remains intact in name only after violence resumed in late 2005.
More than four-thousand people have died since then, though both sides still claim to abide by the agreement.
At least 65-thousand people were killed before the ceasefire.
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