* As posted on http://www.cbc.ca

Judge denies RCMP attempt to ban media from Air India trial

Last Updated Wed, 12 Nov 2003 19:12:06

VANCOUVER - In a stunning admission the RCMP says it can no longer properly
protect the star witness in the Air India case because of media coverage of
the trial.

The woman is in the witness protection program and can't be identified by
court order. But artist's sketches have been used that depict the woman's
appearance and a newspaper published the woman's first name.
On Wednesday, the police asked the court to ban all coverage of her
remaining testimony against accused bomber Ripudaman Singh Malik.

Jeff Hayes, the lawyer for the RCMP, seemed almost astonished as he waved a
piece of paper before Justice Ian Bruce Josephson.  Hayes claims it is yet
another breach of the ban to protect the identity of the key witness. It
was a print-out of the Canwest Global website, showing a sketch of the
witness.

In it, her hair style, her hair color and her stature are clear. Those
sketches are banned. Last week Justice Josephson went so far as to order
media outlets to delete anything on their hard drives "including web
pages, any tape that could be reused, any illustration of the protected
witnesses."

The Canwest Global image would make the fifth breach of the order since the
witness began testifying a week and a half ago, including one where an
Indo-Canadian newspaper used her first name.  Spokesman for the Crown,
Geoff Gaul, says the prosecution has had enough. "The time for trust
and goodwill is over. The acts were careless, and reckless."

Gaul says the ban on identifying the witness was not sought lightly. The
ban is there to protect the woman whose life could be in danger if certain
people discover who she is. He says the media's carelessness has put her
safety at risk. "Once an identity has been disclosed, it is something
that is very difficult, if even possible, to correct."

The judge has encouraged the Crown to consider contempt of court charges
against the media outlets that broke the ban. But he rejected the request
from the RCMP to ban reporters from writing anything more about the woman's
testimony.

Meanwhile, cross-examination of the witness continued on Wednesday. The
defence pressed hard for the witness to remember the exact words Malik used
when he allegedly confided in her his involvement in the bombing of Air
India Flight 182.  Malik is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court, along with
co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri. The two men are accused of planning the 1985
Air India bombing that killed 329 people, most of them Canadian. They are
also accused of another bombing, the same day, that killed two baggage
handlers in Japan.

In spite of hours of questioning the woman would not be shaken: she
insisted Malik told her, "We had Air India crashed."

The trial continues.


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