A B.C. Supreme Court judge says a six-month jail sentence for a man convicted of fundraising for a terrorist group won't stop determined terrorists, but it will hinder those who sympathize with such causes.
Judge Robert Powers handed down the six-month sentence Friday to Prapaharan Thambithurai, the first person convicted under federal laws against terrorist fundraising.
Thambithurai pleaded guilty on Tuesday to raising money for the Tamil Tiger rebels of Sri Lanka, which Ottawa has listed as a terrorist organization.
The 46-year-old Maple, Ontario, man was arrested two years ago in Vancouver.
When he entered his guilty plea, he said that he knew some of the $600 dollars he raised would go to the Tamil Tigers, and the judge says the plea was a mitigating factor.
Outside the court, his wife Uthaya Prapaharan told reporters that her husband was raising money for "humanitarian" relief -- food, shelter and medication for Tamil people caught in the decades-long war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
"My husband is always doing so much good work for his community here," she said. "That's why I am so upset. He doesn't need to go to jail for feeding people."
The Sri Lankan civil war began in 1983 and only ended last year. The Canadian government listed the LTTE as a terrorist group in 2006.
With files from The Canadian Press
