Air India perjury sentencing opens

Another sentencing hearing begins in Vancouver on Wednesday for Inderjit Singh Reyat — the only man ever convicted in connection with the Air India bombing.

It will be the third time Reyat is sentenced over the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, en route from Montreal to London and New Delhi. The 747 jet carrying 329 people fell from the sky off the coast of Ireland after an explosive device went off in the cargo hold.

Reyat was found guilty in September of perjury while testifying as a Crown witness at the 2003 trial of Ripudiman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

They had been charged with conspiring to blow up the Air India flight and of causing another explosion that killed two baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Japan.

Bagri and Malik were acquitted, but seven years later the Crown proved that Reyat had lied under oath during their trial.

Victims' families attend

Reyat had previously been convicted of manslaughter in the Narita bombing and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was sentenced to five years in a separate trial for his role in constructing the bomb that brought down the Air India flight.

Some family members of those killed in the Air India bombing planned to be in the courtroom for Reyat's two-day hearing, in which he faces a maximum prison term of 14 years.

"We will never hear Mr. Reyat say the truth because he downplays, minimizes his role in all of what he did," said Perviz Madon, who lost her husband, Sam Madon, on the flight. "Reyat still hasn't really seen what a huge role he played in all of this."