The Supreme Court of Canada has cleared the way for the B.C. government to wrest $5.2-million in legal fees from a man acquitted of criminal charges in the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight.
The court gave the province a green light to unseal and examine documents it seized from Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Vancouver businessman, in 2009.
The material was seized in connection with a lawsuit the province launched alleging that the Malik family systematically misrepresented its considerable wealth to defraud the public of special legal funding made available to Mr. Malik.
Thursday’s decision reversed an earlier B.C. Court of Appeal decision that had gone in Mr. Malik’s favour.
The Air India plane exploded off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board. Mr. Malik was also charged in the deaths of two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita Airport who were killed when a bomb-laden suitcase exploded before it could be loaded onto a second Air India flight.
Writing for a 9-0 Supreme Court majority, Mr. Justice Ian Binnie said the Malik family retains the right to challenge evidence obtained from the documents which they believe might “explain away or put a different light on their financial transactions.”
However, he made it clear that, were the seizure order to be reversed, the Maliks might potentially go so far as to destroy evidence that harms their cause.
21/04/11 Kirk Makin/Globe and Mail
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