Information in the document had been made up by an FBI agent to protect an informant, court is told

VANCOUVER, March 09, 2004
Vancouver Sun

- The Air India trial came to a sudden halt Monday -- for the second time in a week -- because of a dispute over an FBI telex accidentally given to defence lawyers by the Crown.

Prosecutor Richard Cairns seemed surprised when a lawyer for accused bomber Ajaib Singh Bagri began to cross-examine a key witness about an FBI telex from 1988 outlining information that appeared to have been told to U.S. authorities by a man, known as John.

The telex was different from one that was the subject of a dispute last week.

After breaking to consult with the FBI, Cairns returned to say that all the information contained in the telex was made up by an FBI agent to protect John, who was a confidential informant.

The witness was stood down for several hours while the Crown and defence lawyers tried to sort the matter out. He's expected to return to the stand today.

Bagri lawyer Richard Peck said he was astonished that a false document had been disclosed to the defence team and demanded to know how many more FBI documents were "doctored, falsified, whatever word you want to apply to it."

"To avoid running into this problem again, we want full disclosure of any other FBI documents that are false," Peck said. "It goes to the heart of the administration of justice."

The contested document appeared to suggest that John misled the FBI about a 1988 trip to Seattle for the funeral of a man known as Ammand Singh, who was once linked to the Air India bombing.

Peck said the document indicates John was involved in a plan to "spirit away" Singh's body after his death to hide the fact that he was a fugitive in two U.S. terrorism cases involving foiled assassination plots.

But Cairns said it would be fruitless to cross-examine John on the document now that the FBI has indicated all the information contained in it is false.

And he said the FBI was not attempting to create a fraudulent telex, but to protect the identity of its confidential informant by creating a believable scenario.

Justice Ian Bruce Josephson said he understood the defence concerns about preparing a cross-examination on the basis of fictionalized documents that it had been given.

Cairns agreed to get more detailed information from the FBI for the defence about a series of memos dealing with John as an FBI informant throughout the late 1980s.

Earlier Monday, Cairns said the Crown was waiving its objections over another FBI telex inadvertently disclosed to Bagri's lawyers outlining information John provided to the FBI about Sikh militant activities in September, 1985.

Cairns said last week that if the secret telex was disclosed, it might jeopardize John's life, but the witness apparently was not as concerned about the information.

John testified last week that Bagri confessed his involvement in the Air India bombing outside a New Jersey gas station in the summer of the 1985.

But Peck suggested another theory Monday -- that John implicated Bagri only to cover up his own group's link to the bombing plot.

Peck said John was "worried sick" that the Air India bombing would be pinned on his New York-based Dashmesh Regiment.

In fact, two Dashmesh members were linked to the Air India disaster in news reports in the days following the June 23, 1985, bombings that killed 331, Peck said.

John testified Monday that he read articles suggesting Dashmesh Regiment was linked to Air India, but told Josephson that he knew nothing about the two men -- Lal Singh and Ammand Singh -- being wanted by the RCMP.

"I have never been worried about this issue," John said.

"When I read in the newspaper that Dashmesh Regiment and Sikh Student Federation were being blamed for it, then I was concerned."

He also denied Peck's suggestion that his group claimed responsibility for the Air India bombings.

"My group did not take responsibility. If any reporter had the wrong news, I don't know about that," John said.

John identified photographs of the two Singhs from Canadian news reports at the time. He also said that when Ammand Singh died in Seattle in 1988, he had been using the pseudonym Jagtar Singh.

John admitted again Monday that he provided $300 or $400 used to buy tickets for the two Singhs to fly back to New York from New Orleans after a failed assassination plot against an Indian official. Four other Dashmesh members were arrested in New Orleans.

John testified earlier that he became an FBI informant after the New Orleans plot because he was disturbed by the violent tactics of some in his group, though he conceded Monday that -- like many Sikhs at the time -- he had wanted revenge against the Indian government.

Peck hinted Monday that co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik might take the witness stand in his own defence.

Peck said Malik's lawyer recently wrote to the prosecution requesting information on what questions Malik might be asked on cross-examination if he were to testify. Peck said Crown prosecutor Joe Bellows refused to provide the defence with a road-map to his cross-examination.

Bagri and Malik are charged with conspiracy and murder in two June 1985 bombings that targeted Air India and killed 331.

The Crown alleges the pair was part of a group of B.C.-based Sikh separatists who targeted the national airline of India to retaliate for the Indian Army's attack a year earlier on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.