Air India bomber gets 9 more years

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The only person convicted in the 1985 Air India bombings was sentenced Friday to nine years in Canadian prison for perjury, in addition to his earlier sentence.

A jury in British Columbia found Inderjit Singh Reyat guilty in September of lying on the witness stand during the 2003 trial of two other accused bombers. The nine-year sentence is believed to be the longest ever imposed by a Canadian court for perjury, Postmedia News reported.

Two Air India flights were targeted by the bombers. One, flying from Canada to Delhi by way of London, exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing the 329 people on board.

The same day, a suitcase blew up at Narita Airport in Tokyo, killing two baggage handlers. The suitcase had arrived in Tokyo from Canada and was to be transferred to an Air India plane to India.

Reyat was convicted of manslaughter in 1991 for making the Tokyo bomb and sentenced to 10 years. Ten years later, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the other bombing.

Under the terms of his plea bargain, Reyat was supposed to testify truthfully against two accused bombers. Prosecutors said he lied on the witness stand.