The Canadian Press
March 8, 2004
VANCOUVER (CP) _ A former member of an alleged Sikh
extremist organization testified at the Air India bombing trial Monday
he does not believe in using violence to achieve a Sikh state.
But, said the man, who turned FBI informant after the
1985 airline bombings, the 1984 Indian army raids on the Golden Temple,
Sikhism's holiest shrine, enraged members of the faith.
''We were angry,'' he told Justice Ian Josephson, often
speaking with the aid of an interpreter. ''We all wanted to retaliate
and take revenge.''
The testimony came as defence lawyers for accused bomber
Ajaib Singh Bagri attempted to poke holes in the credibility and motives
of the key witness.
The witness reiterated testimony that he had financed
airline tickets for two fellow members of the extremist Sikh Dashmesh
Regiment as they tried to escape from New Orleans in 1985.
He said the men were part of a failed conspiracy to
kill Bhajan Lal, the chief minister of the Indian state of Haryana,
who was in the city for eye surgery. They were wanted by authorities
after the capture of four other conspirators.
The pair were early prime suspects in the Air India
bombings and wanted by both the FBI and the RCMP.
The witness denied full knowledge of the New Orleans
murder plot.
And he said he was only later aware the pair were also
suspects in the Air India disaster from reading the newspapers.
He denied reports the Dashmesh Regiment had claimed
responsibility for the bombings.
''We never took claim for the disaster,'' he said.
When one of the two men, Dalbir Singh, died in a 1988
Seattle car crash, the witness testified he went there to help organize
the funeral.
When defense lawyer Richard Peck asked him to reveal
the names of others the witness met at the Seattle Sikh temple, the
man suggested revealing them might not be appropriate.
With the witness out of the courtroom, Peck told the
court an FBI document indicated the man and accomplices wanted ``to
spirit away the body'' so it could not be identified.
The prosecution later admitted the document was fabricated
by the FBI and that the incident had not happened.
''It's not something he can be cross-examined on,''
said Crown lawyer Richard Cairns.
''He had nothing to do with it. This is a document that
was made up by the FBI agent.''
Ron Parrish, the FBI agent who handled the informer,
is in Vancouver before he takes the witness stand next week.
Josephson asked Cairns to go through the documents with
Parrish to indicate what was accurate and what was false.
The court was told the creation of such documents is
FBI practice to protect informants.
''These documents are prepared by the FBI for a legitimate
purpose,'' Cairns said. Peck was clearly frustrated.
''We simply don't know which of these documents contain
false information,'' he said.
He had planned to examine the witness on another document
advising the witness's name was found on a list of people about to attend
mercenary training.
The list was supposedly found in the briefcase of man
convicted in the Lal assassination attempt.
Last week, the witness told Josephson that Bagri had
confessed to involvement in two 1985 bombings that killed 331 people.
'"We did this,''' the man said Bagri told him when
they met outside a New Jersey gas station several weeks after the 1985
bombings.
The witness told Peck about his involvement with two
extremist Sikh organizations, the Dashmesh Regiment and the Sikh Student
Federation while in New York.
He also confirmed he had attended meetings organized
by the Babbar Khalsa, another Sikh terrorist group in which Talwinder
Singh Parmar, the now-dead alleged mastermind of the Air India bombings,
was a major figure.
The man's evidence proceeded after debate last week
as to whether the defence could cross-examine the witness on the contents
of an FBI memo inadvertently disclosed by the Crown.
Bagri's lawyers argued the contents of the memo about
the witness's past involvements with Sikh groups were relevant to the
Air India disaster.
The witness was paid almost $460,000 to testify and
had asked for another $200,000 in December.
Bagri and co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik are charged
with conspiracy and murder in two bombings on June 23, 1985.
An initial blast at Tokyo's Narita Airport killed two
baggage handlers. Less than an hour later, Air India Flight 182 exploded
off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
Monday was the 100th day of testimony in the trial.