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| Sunday, 16 November 2003 |
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Accused Air India bomber's supporters scoff at witness VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Saturday (Reuters) Supporters of Ripudaman Singh Malik, accused of murder in connection with the 1985 bombing of an Air India jetliner that killed 329, scoffed in court on Friday as a key prosecution witness tearfully denied she intended to become a police informant. Malik's attorney hammered questions at the witness for a fifth straight day, trying to discredit her motive for having testified last week that Malik twice confessed to her his role in the 1985 bombing plot. The woman looked directly at Malik in the witness box as she argued the only reason she contacted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, in 1997 was because she wanted it to help her dispel rumors that she was a CSIS spy. Court has been told that Malik cited the spy rumors when he fired her from a job at the Sikh school he ran, and his lawyer has suggested in court that the woman went to the police with a story about his involvement with Air India in a bid for revenge. The woman, whose name cannot be published because she is in a witness protection program, said she reluctantly agreed to carry a hidden police microphone the day she picked up her dismissal papers because she feared for her life. "I said to myself, Oh Mr. Malik, what did you make me become?" she testified before a British Columbia Supreme Court judge. "You (Malik) accused me of being a CSIS spy and now I am one... What am I becoming? .. What have I become?" Malik stared straight ahead, showing no emotion, but some of his supporters and relatives in the courtroom audience scoffed and chuckled. "Don't be so melodramatic," one woman was overheard saying.Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are charged with murder for two 1985 bombings. One destroyed Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people in history's deadliest bombing of a commercial passenger jet. The other, almost simultaneously, killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport. Police allege Malik and Bagri were part of a Vancouver-based conspiracy of Sikh militants who wanted revenge for the Indian Army's bloody 1984 storming of Sikhism's Golden Temple in Amritsar.Malik and Bagri have denied any connection with the bombings.Malik's attorney David Crossin pressed the woman for details on what she told police agents during meetings in 1997 and 1998, suggesting she lied when she said she had initially refused to talk about the Air India dispute. The woman, her voice sounding tired, answered an increasing number of questions with; "I do not remember, sir." Crossin is scheduled to continue his questioning on Monday. The CSIS agent who first met with the woman is also expected to testify next week. |
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