Tamil Tigers U.S. Director Arrested

A complaint was unsealed this morning in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn charging Karunakaran “Karuna” Kandasamy with material support of a foreign terrorist organization.^[1] Karuna is a senior U.S. representative of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997.^[2]

Karuna was arrested in Queens, New York, and was scheduled to have his initial appearance on April 25 before United States Magistrate Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn.^[3] ''As alleged in the complaint, for years that [Tamil Tigers] has covertly operated within the United States drawing on America's financial resources and technological advances to further its war of terror in Sri Lanka and elsewhere….[w]e refuse to allow this to continue,'' stated U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf.^[4]

According to the complaint, Tamil Tigers was founded in 1976 and relies on terrorism, including suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing, and political assassinations to achieve its objective of establishing an independent Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka.^[5] The group's elite Black Tiger squad has conducted hundreds of suicide attacks and several assassinations, including the May 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the 1993 assassination of the President of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa, more than 4,000 people have been killed in the past 15 months in this escalating conflict.^[6]

The Tamil Tigers rely on compassionate Tamil expatriates residing in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, to raise and launder money; smuggle arms, explosives, equipment, and technology into Tamil Tigers-controlled territory; obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government; coordination of these efforts comes from the “branch offices” of the Tamil Tigers in at least 12 countries, including the United States. It is alleged that Karuna is the director of the U.S. branch in Queens.^[7]

In the summer and fall of 2004, for example, the Tigers allegedly undertook a massive worldwide campaign to raise money for its planned offensive against the Sri Lankan government in late 2005.^[8] In support of this planned offensive, Karuna allegedly held fundraising events in November and December 2004 at a church and a public high school in Queens, New York, and a school in South Brunswick, New Jersey; hundreds attended.^[9]
He is also accused of arranging meetings in Sri Lanka between Tamil Tigers leaders and prominent U.S. supporters, who typically have backgrounds in engineering, technology, weaponry, medicine, and other scientific fields.^[10]

Whoever provides “material support” or resources or conceals or disguises the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of §§ 32, 37, 81, 175, 229, 351, 831, 842 (m) or (n), 844 (f) or (i), 930 (c), 956, 1114, 1116, 1203, 1361, 1362, 1363, 1366, 1751, 1992, 1993, 2155, 2156, 2280, 2281, 2332, 2332a, 2332b, 2332f, or 2340A of title 18, section 236 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2284), §46502 or §60123 (b) of title 49, or any offense listed in section 2332b (g)(5)(B) (except for sections 2339A and 2339B) or in preparation for, or in carrying out, the concealment of an escape from the commission of any such violation, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.^[11]

A violation of §2339A may be prosecuted in any Federal judicial district in which the underlying offense was committed, or in any other Federal judicial district as provided by law.^[12] “Material support” is defined as any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe-houses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (one or more individuals who may be, or include, oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.^[13]

---

^[1] U.S. Dep’t of Justice Press Release, Leader of U.S. Arm of Sri Lankan Terrorist Group Arrested for Providing Material Support to Terrorists, PRNewswire-USNewswire, Apr. 25, 2007, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2007/2007Apr25.htm (last visited Apr. 27, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(a)(2007).
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id., at § 2339A(b)(1).