Testify or be arrested, RCMP told witness

Ottawa: The RCMP told a reluctant witness in the Air India bombing that if she tried to back out of a commitment to testify against a key suspect she could be arrested and forced to appear in court.
But Insp. Doug Best, appearing Wednesday at a public inquiry, insisted his words had to be viewed "in context" and he didn’t mean them as a threat.
The message he actually meant to convey, said Best, was that "clearly we would not want to be arresting a witness that we wanted to come to court.
"Obviously, if you failed to show up we would have to issue an arrest warrant. But it wasn’t said in any kind of threatening manner, nor did I take it that it was perceived in that manner."
The comment about possible arrest, recorded in Best’s notebook from March 1998, came during a meeting with a woman identified only as Ms. E who had become the main witness against Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of the prime suspects in the 1985 bombing that took 329 lives.
It followed an exchange in which the woman and her husband informed Best they had retained a lawyer to advise them — a step the Mountie acknowledged was "their privilege."
Anil Kapoor, one of the legal team for the inquiry headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major, was clearly taken aback by the interpretation Best put on his remarks about potential arrest.
"What’s the point of saying that?" Kapoor interjected. "There’s no point in saying that to this person, is there?"
Best calmly reiterated that he never intended to put pressure on his star witness. "My dialogue with her always — and my demeanour with her, as was hers with me — was quite cordial."
Ironically, Best was testifying from behind a white curtain that concealed his facial features. Federal lawyers explained that as being necessary for unspecified "operational reasons" related to his continuing duties with the RCMP.
18/10/07 ChronicleHerald.ca

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Categories: Air India - International Oct 2007, Foreign Oct 2007, Safety Oct 2007