Air India bomb maker asks Supreme Court of Canada to review perjury conviction

VANCOUVER – Air India bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a perjury conviction related to his testimony at the trial for two men acquitted in the case.

Reyat’s lawyer has filed a notice with the country’s highest court asking for leave to appeal his conviction, which was upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal earlier this year.

Reyat was convicted of lying at the 2003 trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were ultimately acquitted on charges connected to the 1985 bombing that killed 329 people.

Reyat, who earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case, was sentenced to nine years for his perjury conviction — believed to be the longest perjury sentence in Canadian history.

The notice to the Supreme Court of Canada argues the trial judge made a mistake in his instructions to the jury.

It’s an argument the B.C. Appeal Court unanimously rejected earlier this year, when a three-judge panel upheld Reyat’s conviction and sentence.