Ottawa: A man accused of bribing an Indian government official pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday, kicking off a trial that pushes those involved into largely uncharted legal waters.
Nazir Karigar, 65, was charged with one count of corruption after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested him in May 2010.
The Crown accuses him of being involved in a scheme to provide bribes worth thousands of dollars to officials with commercial airline Air India from 2005 to 2007.
He was allegedly involved in trying to secure a multi-million dollar contract for Cryptometrics, a company that developed facial-recognition technology that allows security officials to identify people by taking images of their face.
Part of the testimony during the trial’s first day centred on whether Air India employees fall into the category of a “foreign public official.” Section 2 of the Act includes any corporation that performs “a duty or function on behalf of a foreign state.”
Air India is a corporation owned by the Indian government. The court heard from the man responsible for the airline in Canada that he did not receive a pension from the Indian government, but other officials with the airline did.
24/09/12 Mark Brownlee/Ottawa Citizen
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Nazir Karigar, 65, was charged with one count of corruption after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested him in May 2010.
The Crown accuses him of being involved in a scheme to provide bribes worth thousands of dollars to officials with commercial airline Air India from 2005 to 2007.
He was allegedly involved in trying to secure a multi-million dollar contract for Cryptometrics, a company that developed facial-recognition technology that allows security officials to identify people by taking images of their face.
Part of the testimony during the trial’s first day centred on whether Air India employees fall into the category of a “foreign public official.” Section 2 of the Act includes any corporation that performs “a duty or function on behalf of a foreign state.”
Air India is a corporation owned by the Indian government. The court heard from the man responsible for the airline in Canada that he did not receive a pension from the Indian government, but other officials with the airline did.
24/09/12 Mark Brownlee/Ottawa Citizen
