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VANCOUVER, Canada : The only person ever convicted in the 1985 Air India bombings went on trial for perjury, accused of lying to protect the alleged bombers who were later acquitted.
Inderjit Singh Reyat is on trial before 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 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.
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.
Two baggage handlers at Japan's Narita airport were also killed in the blast of a second suitcase bomb tied to the plot.
Prosecutors argued that Canadian Sikh extremists had sought to bring down Air India jets in retaliation for the Indian government's June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
Reyat served more than 15 years in prison for manslaughter and making the bombs responsible for the Narita airport blast and the downing of Flight 182 -- the second-worst airline attack in history, behind the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
He was released on bail in July 2008 to await trial for perjury.
As the perjury trial began Thursday, Reyat stood in the prisoner's box wearing a solemn Western-style business suit and a deep blue turban.
In contrast to the heavy security for Malik and Bagri?s trial, held in a purpose-built courtroom accessed through a narrow passage with metal detectors and a dozen sheriffs, only two sheriffs sat in on Reyat?s perjury trial.
The proceedings took place in a regular courtroom of the British Columbia Supreme Court without security screens.
The trial was attended by a dozen international media, students from a nearby English-language school practicing their skills, and a handful of men in traditional East Indian dress.
- AFP/wk
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