Loganathan Sabanayagam

Alleged to be one of six original founding members,[1] Loganathan Sabanayagam was the leader of the Tamil Tigers in Canada[2] and a document forger. After his arrest, Canada was forced to update the security measures on its passports.[3]

Known by the alias Maran, he was a cousin to Velupillai Prabhakaran.[4]

He was arrested in 1992, following an investigative report in the Toronto Star uncovered his forgery ring, after police dismissed a phone call from cleaning staff in December 1991 alerting them that forgery tools had been found in his apartment.[5] Reporters Dale Brazao and Paul Watson went to meet the cleaning staff, and gathered the evidence while posing as prospective tenants.[5]

Sabanayagam's partner in the forgery ring, Santhakumar Kumarasamy, was arrested in 1990 and was the first Canadian ever convicted of passport fraud,[6] but died in prison prior to Sabanayagam's charges being laid.[4]

Sabanayagam, whom prosecutors argued tried to "subvert the sovereignty" of Canada,[5] pleaded guilty to forgery and was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment followed by 18 months released on probation.[4][5] He appeared at his bail hearing wearing a Tamil Tigers shirt.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Bowen, Fred. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 4 January 1996 interview for Issue Paper: Sri Lanka Archived 2005-11-24 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Equipe de Recherche sur le Terrorisme et l'Antiterrorisme, Les principaux acteurs et la structure des TLET
  3. ↑ The Sri Lanka Monitor February 9, 1994
  4. 1 2 3 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Sri Lanka Alien Smuggling, May 1996
  5. 1 2 3 4 Toronto Star, "Passport forger jailed after insulting Canada", February 9, 1994
  6. ↑ The Toronto Star 19 Dec. 1991
  7. ↑ Bell, Stewart. "Cold Terror", 2005
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