MONTREAL: Five Sikhs charged with conspiring to make explosives to damage property or n= danger lives were denied bail Friday pending their preliminary hearing.
“In the public interest, the five will be detained pending trial,” said Sessions Judge Claude Joncas. He said he would set a date Monday for the preliminary hearing,
The five men were charged Saturday after being arrested in raids a day earlier, but have not yet entered a plea. The arrests followed an investigation that included help from the FBI and the Canadian security service.
Published reports have suggested the arrests were connected to an alleged plot to blow up an Air-India flight that left New York’s John F, Kennedy International Airport Saturday.
“We have to protect the safety of Canada and the world’s” prosecutor Jean-Mare Brousseau said Thursday when he requested the five men be detained. “When we are talking about public interest we have to look at Canada and (its) credibility in other countries.”
But defense lawyer Harvey Yarcosky said Thursday the evidence vas insufficient to convict his clients and asked that they be released “albeit under very strict conditions.” Details of the evidence cannot be published because of a gag order requested by the defense.
Charged are Gurcharan Singh 38, and Kashmir Singh Dhillon, 41, both of Montreal suburb of LaSalle; Chattar Singh Saini, 43, of nearby Chomedey; and Montrealers Santokh Singh Khela, 24, and Mohinder Singh ‘Anand, 21.
‘One charge alleges the five conspired to “either fabricate or have in their possessions or in their care or control an explosive substance with the intention of putting lives.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 30, 1986
