There is some hell to pay up in Vancouver...
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Two accused Air India bombers acquitted of Canada's worst mass murder
AMY CARMICHAEL
VANCOUVER (CP) - Two Sikh men were acquitted Wednesday in the deaths of 329 people who perished when Air India Flight 182 was brought down by a bomb nearly 20 years ago in Canada's worst case of mass murder.
Justice Ian Josephson of the B.C. Supreme Court found Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty on all eight charges each man faced, including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The bombs did originate in Vancouver, Josephson ruled, but two decades after they exploded Canadian officials are no closer to solving the case. Malik and Bagri spent more than four years in custody since their arrest.
Bagri, 55, a Kamloops, B.C., sawmill worker wrote a statement delivered outside court by his daughter, Inderjit.
"The past 4½ years have been very difficult for me and my family. I was accused of a horrible crime and have been in prison for over four years.
"In 1985, at the time these terrible events occurred, I was a passionate advocate of an independent homeland for Sikh people. I had absolutely no involvement in these criminal activities."
He said the attack on Air India Flight 182 caused a deep rift in the Sikh community and he hopes that healing can now begin.
Malik, 58, was driven away from court in a Mercedes without commenting on the verdict.
Geoffrey Gaul, a spokesman for the Crown, said prosecutors will review the judgment before deciding on an appeal, which must be filed within 30 days.
"It's premature at this point to say what will transpire," he added.
In the end, the fate of Malik and Bagri hung on the stories of a handful of witnesses who testified against them in the trial by judge alone. He said those witnesses were not credible.
Josephson said Malik's ex-employee who went into the witness protection program to testify against him was strong and intelligent on the stand. She told the court that Malik had confessed to her about bringing down the plane.
But Josephson was troubled by her claims that she was still in love with her former boss and has a deep respect for him. The idea that she is in love with Malik, he said, was probably a story she made up to bolster her credibility.
"Either this mature, intelligent and strong-willed person has abandoned all she believes in because of overwhelming and unreasoning emotions of the heart, or she is misleading the court by claiming to be (Malik's) loving confidante in an attempt to blunt the inevitable credibility attack based on animus towards Mr. Malik," he said.
"The latter would also better provide some explanation for the apparent unlikelihood of Mr. Malik having chosen to provide her with such a detailed confession."
The woman's testimony was inconsistent and she doctored journal entries about Malik's alleged confession, Josephson noted.
Malik and Bagri were accused of blowing up a plane bound for Mumbai from Vancouver via Toronto, Montreal and London in a plot inspired by religious revenge after the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine, in June 1984.
A third man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his part in the downing on June 23, 1985, of Flight 182, a Boeing 747 operated by India's state-run airline.
Reyat, an electrician from Duncan, B.C., was handed another five-year jail term on top of the 10 years he was serving on manslaughter and explosives charges related to the Narita bombing.
The Crown argued that after the attack on the Golden Temple, Vancouver's large ex-pat Sikh community was bubbling with rage, which those at the heart of the plot exploited.
Bagri and Malik, prosecutors argued, obsessed over terrorist plots to create a Sikh homeland in India. The two belonged to groups, since outlawed in Canada, that blamed the Indian government for mistreating Sikhs.
The suspected mastermind of the plot was Talwinder Singh Parmar, prosecutors told the trial, which was held in a specially built multimillion-dollar courtroom with protective glass separating the accused and lawyers from the public gallery.
Like other alleged co-conspirators and insiders, Parmar is dead. He was killed in a shootout with Indian police in 1992.
Malik and Bagri had also been charged in an explosion at Japan's Narita airport that killed two baggage handlers on the same day. They were found not guilty of those charges as well.
With little hard evidence linking Malik or Bagri to the bombings, Josephson had to decide on the credibility of the witnesses who testified against them and he decided much of their testimony was unreliable.
Josephson said two men who claimed Malik asked them to take bomb-laden suitcases to the airport were also lying.
It took the two of them many years to come forward. One was financially ruined by Malik and had serious reason to want revenge against him, the judge said.
The other was a stranger to Malik and Parmar and the thought that they would entrust him with such important information about their alleged bombing plans is "implausible in the extreme," Josephson said.
Families of the victims began crying and hugging each other as the judge delivered his verdict.
There were gasps as Josephson began discounting the testimony of the star witness against Malik.
Malik's supporters said "Thank God" and "Thank you" in Punjabi as they heard the verdict.
Amid calls from relatives for a public inquiry into the way the Air India case was handled, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said it is too soon to react to the judgment or make a decision on an inquiry.
"I am not in a position now today to comment on that, we've just been through a trial of over a year," she said in Edmonton.
She said a decision on an appeal will have to be made by B.C.'s attorney general.
A London, Ont., man whose daughter died in the Air India bombing said the accused will be judged by God.
"Why did they even have this trial?" said Rattan Singh Kalsi, 75.
"We were suffering anyway. Now we will suffer more."
Josephson said the main witnesses against Bagri, a female confidante and an acquaintance, also couldn't be believed.
The acquaintance is an American citizen paid $460,000 by the RCMP to testify. The man has a long history as an FBI (news - web sites) informant and used that position to gain U.S. citizenship.
On the eve of his testimony he tried to get more money out of Canadian police.
"His entreaties for immigration assistance at the same time he was demanding this additional payment firmly belie any notion that he was motivated other than by self-interest," Josephson said.
Bagri's female confidante said he came to her house and asked if he could borrow her car to take bags to the airport. On the stand she claimed not to remember telling any of this to police.
"Thus, proof of Mr. Bagri's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt rests upon hearsay statements for which there is no reliable confirmatory evidence," Josephson said. "These statements were provided on a confidential basis and not under oath by a person who falsely claimed loss of memory when testifying."
The destruction of evidence by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, meanwhile, was singled out by the judge for criticism during the trial as "unacceptable negligence."
The woman who testified against Malik said he confessed to organizing a plan to smuggle two bombs on Vancouver flights that would be transferred to two Air India jets.
The plan, she said, was for the explosives, hidden in suitcases, to detonate at the same time while the planes soared on opposite sides of the world.
But things didn't go according to plan, according to the woman.
One bomb blew up on schedule, shattering Flight 182 as it flew off the coast of Ireland.
The second device detonated prematurely, killing the two baggage workers in Tokyo. The bomb - which went off 54 minutes before Flight 182 fell from the sky - was supposed to be transferred in luggage from a Canadian Airlines flight from Vancouver to another Air India jet destined for Delhi via Bangkok.
The main witness against Malik said said he poured his heart out to her in April 1986.
She said that Malik told her: "We had Air India crash. Nobody, I mean nobody, can do anything. It is all for Sikhism."
In the spring of 1997, Malik went further, she said, and confessed that he was the one who had purchased two airline tickets to fly the bombs in suitcases out of Vancouver.
The same 20-year-old memories of second-hand confessions swirled around Bagri, Malik's alleged logistics man.
Bagri was heavily involved in the movement to create Khalistan, the independent homeland some Sikhs wanted, and called for followers of the religion to take up arms during speeches.
Bagri was described by prosecutor Bob Wright as "a militant Sikh terrorist." The court watched videotapes of Bagri rallying his people with violent slogans.
"Until we kill 50,000 Hindus we will not rest," he preached at a massive gathering of Sikhs in Madison Square Garden in New York in July 1984.
The investigation into the bombings hit a number of snags. The death of Parmar meant an already cold trail in the investigation would sink into the deep freeze.
Court heard that CSIS had been following Parmar, Malik and Bagri but weren't able to come up with anything.
Important notes and tips were destroyed instead of being shared with the RCMP in a clash of personalities between officers and supervisors in the two security organizations. Information on suspects was further buried in turf wars.
Text of a written statement by Ajaib Singh Bagri, acquitted Wednesday of all charges in the 1985 Air India bombings:
Today Mr. Justice Josephson found me not guilty of all the criminal charges laid against me in October 2000.
The past 4½ years have been very difficult for me and my family. I have been accused of horrendous crimes and have been imprisoned for over four years while these charges were before the courts.
In 1985, when these terrible events occurred, I was a passionate advocate for an independent homeland for the Sikh people. But I want to repeat publicly today, and have told the authorities numerous times since 1985, that I had absolutely no involvement in any of these criminal activities.
The loss of so many innocent lives resulting from these events is an enormous tragedy. It has brought unspeakable suffering to the families and friends of those who have died. It has also caused deep divisions within the Sikh community.
It is my hope that the completion of the legal proceedings will now allow healing to begin and will encourage our community to come together.
I want to express my thanks to my family and my wife for their unwavering love, support and trust. I also want to publicly thank Mr. (Richard) Peck, Mr. (Michael) Code and Mr. Michael) Tammen and other members of the defence team for their superb legal representation and their tireless efforts on my behalf.
Here is a chronology of events around the bombing of Air India Flight 182:
June 5, 1984: Sikhs around the world are outraged after India's government orders a raid on Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Oct. 30, 1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her Sikh body guards in retaliation. Thousands of Sikhs die in riots in Indian cities.
June 23, 1985: Air India Flight 182 leaves Toronto and explodes near Ireland, killing 329 people - 278 of them Canadians. Less than one hour before the blast, two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport are killed when a bag explodes as it is being transferred to an Air India flight.
Nov. 8, 1985: Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat are arrested by RCMP in connection with bombings. Charges are dropped against Parmar. Reyat is fined for a minor, unrelated charge.
Jan. 22, 1986: Canadian Aviation Safety Board says a bomb brought down the jet.
Feb. 4, 1986: India also concludes a bomb brought down the jet.
February 1988: Reyat is arrested by police in Coventry, England, where he moved with his wife and children in 1986.
Dec. 8, 1989: British authorities sign an extradition order for Reyat following a lengthy court battle.
May 10, 1991: Reyat, an electrician from the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, is sentenced to 10 years in prison on manslaughter and explosives charges related to the Narita bombing.
1992: Bombing suspect Parmar, a preacher from Burnaby, B.C., is killed in a shootout with Indian police officers. Critics say he was arrested and executed.
May 1995: RCMP offer a $1-million reward for help catching the bombers.
April 1997: National Parole Board panel denies Reyat parole.
February 1998: RCMP Insp. Gary Bass, head of the Air India probe, says in a letter that investigators will recommend charges against Reyat and others.
March 7, 1998: National Parole Board panel denies Reyat early release.
Oct. 27, 2000: Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy.
June 4, 2001: British government grants permission for Reyat to be charged in Air India blast.
June 6, 2001: Reyat is charged in Air India Flight 182 bombing just days before his 10-year sentence for his role in the Narita bombing is up. He remains in custody.
Feb. 10, 2003: Reyat pleads guilty to one count of manslaughter and is sentenced to five years.
April 28, 2003: Bagri and Malik are set to go on trial before a judge alone in B.C. Supreme Court.
November 2003: Star witness against Malik testifies the accused confessed his involvement in the bombing on at least two occasions. She testifies he confided in her because the two were in love.
December 2003: Crown shows a videotaped speech by Bagri who called for young Sikhs to rise up and take revenge against the Indian government. "Until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest," he shouted at a July 1984 New York rally.
February 2004: A female friend of Bagri's is dismissed from testifying after she says repeatedly she can't recall the most basic details of her relationship with him. Authorities said she had told them Bagri came to her house on the eve of the terrorist attack to borrow her car to leave luggage at the airport. She refused.
May 2004: Crown wrapped its case.
June 2004: Defence testimony began.
Dec. 3, 2004: Crown and defence rest in bloodiest Canadian terror case. The trial is believed to be among the most expensive and longest this country has seen.
March 16, 2005: B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson acquits Malik and Bagri, saying he found the main witnesses in the case not credible.
Facts about the Air India disaster:
WHEN: June 23, 1985.
HOW IT BEGAN: Boeing 747 Air India Flight 182 to New Delhi and Mumbai originating in Vancouver leaves Toronto, picks up passengers in Montreal. 329 people on board. Most passengers Canadians of Indian descent.
WHAT HAPPENED: Plane explodes over Ireland's southwest coast, killing all aboard.
CAUSE: All sides agree the plane was brought down by a bomb.
SECOND BOMB: About an hour before the blast, an explosion in some luggage at Tokyo's Narita airport kills two baggage handlers. The bag was being transferred to another Air India flight.
SUSPECTS: Bombing linked to militants in British Columbia's Sikh community outraged over actions of India's government. Police link the Narita and Air India blasts.
CONVICTION: Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician from the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, convicted of manslaughter in 1991 in the Narita bombing and served 10 years in prison. Charged in 2001 in the Air India bombing, Reyat pleaded guilty Feb. 10, 2003, to one count of manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison, in addition to time already spent in custody.
ACQUITTED: Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, sawmill worker from Kamloops, B.C., and Ripudaman Singh Malik, 58, millionaire Vancouver businessman, on multiple counts, including first-degree murder and conspiracy.
A look at the four main players in the Air India case:
Ripudaman Singh Malik: Millionaire businessman. Star witness against him said he twice confessed to her his role in the bombings. Malik paid $50,000 to the wife of Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the Air India bombings, between January 1991 and September 1996. Acquitted of all charges in Air India bombing.
Ajaib Singh Bagri: Fiery preacher and Kamloops, B.C., sawmill worker who called for the murder of 50,000 Hindu "hell dwellers" as payback for India's Hindu-led government's decision to send troops into the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. Acquitted of all charges in Air India bombing.
Inderjit Singh Reyat: Admitted he supplied bomb parts in the plot to destroy Air India planes and in February 2003, received a controversial five-year sentence for his role in the deaths of 329 people aboard Flight 182. He had already served a 10-year sentence for the Tokyo bombing that killed two baggage handlers the same day.
Talwinder Singh Parmar: Sikh separatist militant believed to have masterminded the bombings; killed in a shootout with Indian police in the early 1990s. Had been tracked by CSIS.
Two accused Air India bombers acquitted of Canada's worst mass murder
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