Air India bomb maker loses bid for Supreme Court to review perjury conviction

The Canadian Press / Times Colonist
January 24, 2013

Inderjit Singh Reyat is shown outside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on September 10, 2010. Air India bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat has lost his bid to have the Supreme Court of Canada hear his appeal against a perjury conviction. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA - Air India bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat has lost his bid to have the Supreme Court of Canada hear his appeal against a perjury conviction.

The high court has dismissed Reyat's request and, as usual, gave no reasons for its decision.

Reyat was seeking to have his conviction overturned, in the saga that began with the deaths of 329 people in the skies over the Atlantic Ocean nearly three decades ago.

Reyat, who himself pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the bombing, was convicted of perjury in September 2010.

He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, believed to be the longest perjury sentence in Canadian history.

He was accused of lying 19 times during the 2003 trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were acquitted of mass murder and conspiracy in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985.