Air India terrorist bombing perjury trial begins

The only person ever convicted in the 1985 Kanishka bombing went on trial for perjury, accused of lying to protect the alleged suspects who were later acquitted.

Inderjit Singh Reyat is on trial before a Canadian Court in the province of British Columbia consisting of a judge and jury on 19 charges of perjury, and stands accused of lying under oath in the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

Reyat, who served more than 15 years in prison for manslaughter and making the bombs responsible for the Narita airport blast and the downing of Air India Flight 182, was charged with murder alongside Malik and Bagri.

But in 2003, just months before the massive murder trial began, Reyat pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, admitting his role in helping to build the bombs.
    
Prosecutors told the jury in Vancouver they do not plan to call witnesses against Reyat.
    
They will instead have the jury listen to Reyat's testimony in court in 2003 and read statements he gave before appearing as a witness. Reyat had pleaded guilty to helping construct the bomb, and was called as a prosecution witness in the murder trial of Malik and Bagri.
    
Reyat was called as a Crown witness, but then claimed he could not remember details of the 1985 bomb plot, nor the name of one of the men involved, which led British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson to call him "an unmitigated liar".
    
Three hundred and twenty-nine passengers and crew died when Air India Flight 182 en route from Canada exploded in mid-air off the coast of Ireland in 1985.