VANCOUVER – The only man convicted in connection with the Air India bombing and who has served over 20 years for various sentences has lost his latest appeal of a lengthy perjury sentence.
Inderjit Singh Reyat will have to serve his entire nine-year sentence for perjury after the BC Court of Appeal said the offence was grave and incomparable to other cases.
Reyat’s nine-year sentence is the longest for perjury in Canadian history.
“The gravity of the trial at which Mr. Reyat perjured himself is without comparison,” Justice Mary Saunders wrote on behalf of the panel.
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted of all charges in 2005 of murder and conspiracy charges by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
Flight 182 went down in the Irish Sea on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board. A second bomb destined for Air India flight 301 went off prematurely at Narita airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers.
After being extradited back to Canada from Britain, Reyat was convicted in 1991 of two counts of manslaughter for building the bomb that exploded in Japan.
Reyat’s lawyer, Ian Donaldson, told the appeal court last November that Reyat– who has spent most of his adult life in prison — was remorseful about the bombing deaths.
He suggested the prison term be reduced to six or seven years.
Reyat argued at the appeal hearing that he lied in order not to expose himself and his family to retribution by others, reported Canadian Press.
