Jury deliberates Air India perjury charge

Twelve jurors considering a perjury charge against Inderjit Singh Reyat resumed their deliberations on Friday morning after spending the night sequestered in Vancouver.

The jury began deliberations on the charge, which involves 19 allegations of perjury, after the prosecution and defence presented their closing arguments in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon.

Crown prosecutor Len Doust told the 12 jurors that to convict Reyat, they need only conclude that he lied once among the 19 occasions on which he is accused of being untruthful. The allegations all concern his testimony at the trial of two men eventually acquitted of the Air India bombings that killed 331 people.

Defence lawyer Ian Donaldson told them the Crown failed to prove Reyat was lying to protect himself or anyone else during his testimony in 2003.