Man acquitted in Air India case won’t get $9.2 million in costs reimbursed:judge

VANCOUVER – A man acquitted in the Air India terrorist bombing trial won’t be getting back $9.2 million in legal fees.

Ripudaman Singh Malik had admitted in a B.C. Supreme Court case that it would be difficult for him to convince the government to cover his legal bills.

But he said the length and complexity of the bombing trial, the number of lawyers he had to hire and weak evidence warranted a judicial review of his claims.

Malik also said he spent four years in custody before being found not guilty and the Crown conceded there was unacceptable negligence in the destruction of surveillance tapes by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Judge Ian Josephson, who presided at the Air India trial in 2003 and 2004, rejected Malik’s application, saying there is no suggestion of the Crown’s wilful misconduct and that Malik’s acquittal was not a declaration of innocence.

Malik was among two men acquitted of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to a pair of 1985 Air India bombings that killed 331 people, mostly Canadians from Vancouver and Toronto.