The much delayed Kanishka trial of the 1985 bombing of an Air-India flight which crashed off the coast of Ireland killing 329 people on board, will finish sooner than expected, a prosecution spokesman has claimed.
The trial, involving Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and Kamloops millworker Ajaib Singh Bagri, charged with eight counts including murder, attempted murder and conspiracy of two separate bombings on June 23, 1985 was expected to take three years with a jury, but now it will last months.
A prosecution spokesman said that defence lawyers and prosecution have agreed on many admissions of fact that the witness list has been reduced from 85 to 25 for the first part of the prosecution's case alone.
The trial so far has focussed on testimony from Canadian pacific airlines workers and staff from Toronto Pearsons International Airport who testified on Wednesday that an alarm sounded while a suitcase was being scanned, but the supervisor insisted that it was due to a lock on the bag and ignored the alarm.
Also, an X-ray machine used in 1985 by Air-India at the airport as an added security measure had broken down and a hand scanner was used instead to examine the suitcases for the ill-fated Kanishka flight.
Outside the court, Richard Peck, representing Bagri said the Air-India flight was about two hours late leaving Toronto. "Had the flight been on time, the explosion would have occurred when the plane was on the ground."
Other witnesses called by the court to testify about apparent security breaches they noticed at the airport included John Pockridge Ezard, who worked with a cargo company at the airport. He testified saying he was told to bring two diplomatic bags from another flight and leave them to be loaded onto the Air-India flight.
He also said that he saw an Air-India baggage container out of place near a fence that day. "It was unlocked. The flap was blowing in the wind," he said, adding that he sealed it up again without looking inside.
By late May, the spokesman said the prosecution will finish dealing with the details of how the bombs were allegedly placed in the plane and how Flight 182 blew up.
After the summer recess, lawyers will begin addressing the allegation that Malik and Bagri conspired to set the bombs.
