Air India bomb trial hears of love and betrayal

6.00pm

VANCOUVER - A key prosecution witness against two Sikh separatists accused of the 1985 Air India bombings says she still loves one of the suspects and her testimony will betray his trust.

The woman, whose name cannot be published by court order, has been called to testify in a Canadian court about an alleged confession Ripudaman Singh Malik made about a bombing plot that left 331 people dead.

"We shared a love and friendship that is very hard to find ... I still love him. I still respect him," the woman, who worked at a Vancouver-area child-care facility that Malik helped found, said on Friday.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are on trial for the June 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 that killed 329 people, and an attempt to destroy a second Air India jet that instead killed two Tokyo airport workers.

The mid-air destruction of Flight 182 off the coast Ireland was history's deadliest bombing of a civilian airliner. Most of the victims were Canadians returning to India to visit relatives.

Malik and Bagri have pleaded not guilty.

Police say the bombings were the work of Canadian-based Sikh extremists fighting for an independent Sikh homeland in India, and who wanted revenge for the India Army's 1984 storming of Sikhism's Golden Temple in Amritsar.

The woman, who is expected to be on the witness stand for several days, said she met Malik in 1992 when he helped hire her, and their relationship grew close. She said she has not seen him since 1998.

Although the woman has co-operated with police for several years, she said on Friday she did not want to be in court because testifying against Malik broke a promise to keep his trust.

"It's a betrayal," she said.

Malik appeared to show little emotion as he listened.

The woman is believed to be the only prosecution witnesses who can testify that Malik admitted to involvement in the bombings, although the initial questioning by prosecutors did not deal directly with that.

Defence attorneys have attempted to undermine the woman's credibility, noting during questioning of earlier witnesses that she began talking with police at the same time she was angry about losing her job.

The court in Vancouver was crowded on Friday. Relatives and supporters of Malik and Bagri could be overheard complaining that the woman was making up the story that she loved Malik, a wealthy Vancouver businessman.

"She should win an Oscar," one man grumbled.

- REUTERS