Malik found not guilty in Air India bombing
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Ripudiman Singh Malik, 58, has been found not guilty of all eight charges against him in connection with a pair of deadly blasts directed at Air India airliners in 1985.

Josephson's verdict comes nearly 20 years after 331 people died in a pair of blasts targeting Air India airliners.

The two B.C. residents were charged in Oct. 2000, almost 15 years after a mid-air bomb blast sent the Mumbai-bound Flight 182 hurtling from 31,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.

All 329 passengers and crew, including more than 80 children, were killed.

Less than an hour earlier, at Tokyo, Japan's Narita airport, two baggage handlers died and four others were injured when a bomb detonated inside a bag being loaded onto Air India flight 301.

During trial, Crown prosecutors argued that Malik and Bagri, both Sikh extremists, planted the bombs as revenge killings for a deadly Indian attack on the holy Sikh Golden Temple of Amritsar in 1984.

The only other person charged and convicted in connection with the 1985 bombings is Inderjit Singh Reyat. In February 2003, he pleaded guilty to a reduced manslaughter charge.

Admitting that he supplied parts for the bomb that brought down Flight 182, he was sentenced to five years. Reyat had already been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the Narita airport explosion.

Later, when he was called as a witness in the trial, Reyat said he had bought parts to make a bomb without knowing who was going to use them.

Before the Sept. 2001, attacks in the United States, the 1985 Air India bombing bore the grim distinction of being the single deadliest modern act of terror. It still stands as history's deadliest bombing of a civilian airliner.

proofreading edit
[Edited 3/16/05 12:55pm]

This is absolutely disgraceful and sickening.

Wrong forum.

since when are "current events" not allowed on gd?

it has been a difficult trial

over the years witnesses have been shot or threatened

i'm not sure how they could have been aquitted as i thought the woman one of the accused was sleeping with testified that he admitted that he was responsible for the bombing.

i am disappointed to see that even after so many years the families of those killed still have no resolution

Disgusting, totally disgusting

to be fair, the canadian judge did say the crown's evidence was very poor.

and yes, a lover did testify against him, saying that he had said of the bombing he had been involved and it was "all for sikhism".

but he was acquitted.

i guess the best that can be hoped for is that the families and friends of the victims find the strength to press on for justice - however long it takes.