The judge also admitted that the accused, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, meet bail requirements. He also noted that their defense lawyers had argued during the closed bail hearings that the prosecution's case is weak and its witnesses unreliable. Bagri's lawyer has already appealed his denial of bail. Bagri, 51, is a mill worker and Malik, 53, is a wealthy businessman. Canadian authorities used their arrest last year to launch a renewed campaign against "Sikh terrorism."

Over the years the Indian government has waged brutal attacks on Sikhs in the Punjab, relying on anti-Sikh chauvinism to perpetuate divisions among working people along religious and national lines. Hundreds have been killed and thousands more arrested by the Indian police and army in the name of combating political forces who advocate a separate Sikh state in the Punjab. Like hundreds of thousands of other working people in Asia and the Indian subcontinent, a large number of Sikhs have immigrated here over the past several decades.

While the judge clamped a publication ban on the "evidence" presented at the hearing, press reports have said that it is based largely on wiretaps, police informers, and reports from India's political police. Judge Dohm admitted that while the prosecution will call a large number of witnesses during the trial, "my impression...is that very few of those witnesses implicate the two directly." The judge pointed out that the centerpiece of the case comprises comments that the defendants allegedly made to four or five people. The prosecution may have difficulty having its "evidence" accepted during the trial, he said.

Nevertheless, the judge argued that bail should be denied because of "the gravity of the nature of the offense" with which the men are charged, regardless of the "curves and bumps" of the case against them. He asserted that Sikh terrorists had blown up the Air India plane in order to protest the attack by the Indian army on the sacred Golden Temple at Amritsar, which resulted in a massacre of hundreds of Sikhs. However, no Sikh group has ever claimed responsibility for or been implicated in the destruction of the plane, the majority of whose passengers where themselves Sikhs.

During the 15-year investigation of the explosion of the Air India plane off the coast of Ireland that left 329 people dead, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) have jailed a number of Sikhs for alleged terrorist actions. Almost all the charges were eventually dropped or thrown out of court for lack of evidence and/or illegal "investigation techniques" by the cops.

In the campaign against alleged "Sikh terrorism," thousands of Sikhs have been spied upon, wiretapped, interrogated, or held in jail or immigration detention centers without ever being convicted of any crime.

Members of the Toronto Sikh community have formed the United Defense Council (UDC) to raise funds for the enormous legal costs involved in the case. "These two men are just ordinary people like the rest of us and we want to be sure there's ample defense for them," said Amarjit Singh Mann, a member of the UDC.

However, some leaders in the Sikh community have welcomed the arrests, hoping it will bring closure to the 15-year-long Air India investigation. RCMP investigators have also announced that they are pleased with the judge's ruling. They say they still plan to arrest more people.

Steve Penner is a meat packer in Langley, British Columbia  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home