Inderjit Singh Reyat, lone man convicted of the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing that killed 329 people, mostly Indians, on Friday appealed against his perjury conviction in Canada's worst case of terrorism.
Reyat was handed a nine-year prison sentence last year for lying repeatedly at the 2003 trial of two men charged with mass murder and conspiracy. He was a Crown witness at the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were acquitted in the biggest case of aviation terrorism before the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.
Reyat's testimony was part of a deal that saw him plead guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of the people aboard AI Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, Vancouver Sun reported.
His lawyer Ian Donaldson argued that jurors were not required to agree on what he lied about before finding him guilty. Mr. Donaldson told the BC Court of Appeal that a lack of unanimity among jurors examining 19 alleged lies Reyat said in the trial of Malik and Bagri resulted in an unfair verdict. — PTI
