Air India bomb maker guilty of perjury

The only man convicted in the Air India bombings was found guilty on Saturday of committing perjury during the 2003 trial of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, 58, appeared sombre after the verdict was delivered in a Vancouver courtroom. The jurors had deliberated for more than 20 hours.

The judge ordered Reyat, who had been living in Surrey, B.C., for two years under strict bail conditions, be taken into custody immediately.

A two-day sentencing hearing is set to begin Nov. 17. The maximum sentence for perjury is 14 years.

Crown prosecutor Len Doust would not comment on whether this is the final chapter in the Air India case, and whether Reyat's perjury conviction opens the door for another trial.

"I am the independent prosecutor in this matter and I cannot speak for either the police or the attorney general in terms of whether this is the end of it for Air India," Doust said.

Reyat's lawyer, Ian Donaldson, had argued Reyat should remain free to prepare for the sentencing hearing, saying that neither he nor the Crown had found a case of any Canadian convicted of perjury being detained pending sentencing.

But B.C. Supreme Court Judge Mark McEwan said Reyat had been convicted "of a very serious charge" and that "the administration of justice is best protected and the reputation of the legal system itself is protected" by remanding Reyat into custody before the hearing.

During the perjury trial, Doust told the jury that Reyat told blatant and silly lies to protect himself and others. He had told the 12 jurors that to convict Reyat, they only had to conclude that he lied once among the 19 occasions in which he was accused of being untruthful.

The allegations all concerned his testimony at the trial of Bagri and Malik, who were eventually acquitted of the Air India bombings that killed 331 people.

Air India Flight 182 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland when a suitcase bomb exploded, killing all 329 people on board. Most of the people on the jet, which had left Montreal for London, were Canadian.

Reyat served a 10-year sentence after being convicted in 1991 of two counts of manslaughter for making the bomb that exploded the same day at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers.

In 2003, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years for his role in acquiring materials to build the bomb that was placed on board the June 23, 1985, flight.