Vancouver: Prosecution lawyers have wrapped up their closing arguments in the Kanishka trial, taking the 20-year-old case of the bombing of an Air India flight just one step away from a historic judgement.

The main accused Ajaib Singh Bagri and co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik will get one last chance to rebut evidence filed against them in the long-drawn trial, considered the most expensive in Canadian history.

In closing arguments yesterday (Nov 26, 2004) at a British Columbia court, prosecutor Richard Cairns said that the prosecution has proven its case against Bagri in the 1985 mid-air bombing of the Air India jet Kanishka, which had killed all 329 passengers onboard.

"The person who committed this crime is a fanatic without any empathy for his fellow man. Bagri is such a person," the prosecution argued, a media report said.

The prosecution charged that Bagri wanted to "destroy the Indian Government and Air India," which he felt was acting against the interests of Sikhs.

The defence team for Bagri is expected to argue that his rights were violated when the Crown prosecutors allegedly failed to disclose information in a timely way.

"Counsel has a sincere desire to complete the process by next week," Bagri's lawyer Micheal Code was quoted as saying by 'Globe' and 'Mail'.

Kanishka, a Boeing 747 on its way from Toronto to India via London, was blown up off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985. A second bomb exploded at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers.