Kanishka prosecution gets more time to appeal

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April 14, 2005 09:07 IST

The prosecutors in the Air India bombing case have been given a 30-day extension to appeal the acquittals of the two men charged with murder of 329 people on board the AI 182 Montreal-London flight in 1985.

They will be given until May 13 to appeal.

Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri were found not guilty on all eight charges, including first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, by a British Columbia court in its March 16 judgment.

In granting the Crown's application, which was agreed to by Malik's and Bagri's lawyers, Justice Risa Levine of the British Columbia Court of Appeal said the amount of material and the complexity of the case justified the month-long extension.

"It was a complex matter with a great deal of material," a spokesperson for Justice Levine said on Wednesday.

"It doesn't necessarily mean it will take all that time," Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul said after the hearing.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Parliament passed an Opposition-moved non-binding motion for a public inquiry into the bombing.

The AI exploded midair on June 23, 1985, off the coast of Ireland en route from Toronto to Mumbai via London.

Less than an hour earlier, a suitcase being transferred from a flight from Vancouver exploded at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers.

 

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