Come to Canada! Five years for murdering 329 people! Justice run amuck.
Reyat sentence enrages relatives
5 years in Air-India case: Crown says deal important for trial of two other suspects
Ian Bailey
National Post
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
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VANCOUVER - One of three men accused in the 1985 Air- India bombing yesterday pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in jail for his role in Canada's worst act of mass murder.
The deal with 51-year-old Inderjit Singh Reyat, who had been charged with first-degree murder in the bombing that killed all 329 people aboard, immediately put the Crown on the defensive.
But prosecutors said their decision was the right thing to do, based on evidence it could not discuss without threatening the trial, set to begin next month, of two other men in the bombing.
In accepting the joint statement of facts by the Crown and defence lawyers, the Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court asked all sides to ponder the scale of the bombing, which he said "had consequences that were tragic almost beyond description."
"It is important on a day like today that we do not forget those who are not present," Judge Donald Brenner told more than 150 spectators in the $7.2-million high-security courtroom built specially for this trial. "In this case, there are 329 of them and they must be on our minds."
Judge Brenner said he endorsed a recommendation by the defence that Reyat should serve his five-year sentence at the Ferndale medium security prison in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver. The jail has been notorious because prisoners live in homey residences and have had access to a golf course while incarcerated.
Many families of the victims, who waited years for an arrest in the case, were outraged by the deal and said the Crown "is slapping our faces."
Yesterday's plea was a dramatic twist to the traumatic and long-running case, in which charges came only after a 17-year police investigation. Many of those killed when the Air-India jet went down off the coast of Ireland were Canadians, and 60 of them were age 10 or younger.
The bombing has been linked to Sikh terrorists who sought to strike out at the Indian government in their battle for an independent Sikh homeland.
Reyat sat through the proceedings shielded by three-metre-high sheets of bulletproof glass.
The former electrician declined an opportunity to speak to the court and showed little emotion during the hearing except when he chatted and shook hands with his lawyers.
"My client was a lesser player drawn into this by others and, as a result, has spent every day since 1988 in custody," said David Gibbons, Reyat's lawyer.
"To use the word remorseful belittles his feelings. He thinks of it every day and so does his family," Mr. Gibbons said.
Mr. Gibbons noted that Reyat's father committed suicide out of grief over his son's role in the bombing.
Prosecutor Robert Wright said the scale of the catastrophe was "indescribable," referring to entire families wiped out by the bombing. "It strains one's use of language yet we must describe it in court though words don't do it justice."
Ripudaman Singh Malik, a millionaire businessman from Vancouver, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, a millwright from Kamloops, are facing counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiring to cause bombs to be placed on various aircraft, and attempted murder.
Reyat was facing the same charges, but they were dropped yesterday. Instead, he pleaded guilty to a single count of manslaughter of 329 passengers and crew by aiding or abetting in the construction of an explosive device placed aboard Air-India Flight 182.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Reyat acquired parts to build the bomb that downed Flight 182, but had no idea they were to be used on an airliner. "Mr. Reyat was told and believed that the explosive devices would be transported to India in order to blow up property such as a car, a bridge or something 'heavy.'
"Although Mr. Reyat acquired materials for this purpose, he did not make or arm an explosive device, nor did he place an explosive device on an airplane nor does he know who did or did not do so," said the statement, agreed to by Crown and defence lawyers.
"At no time did Mr. Reyat intend by his actions to cause death to any person or believe that such consequences were likely to occur."
Reyat has already spent 10 years in prison for building a bomb that exploded at Japan's Narita airport on the day of the Air-India bombing, killing two baggage handlers.
Prosecutors said Reyat, a Sikh with Canadian and British citizenship, will have served the equivalent of 25 years with yesterday's sentence.
He has spent a total of five years awaiting trial -- calculated as 10 years since pre-trial custody is counted as double -- as well as 10 years imprisonment and is now jailed for five years.
"If you do the math, it comes out to 300 months or 25 years," Mr. Gaul said outside the court.
Canadian Alliance MP Chuck Cadman said it was "shocking" that Reyat received just a five year sentence.
"This guy was doing 10 years for manslaughter for two deaths and he gets five years for 329? The math doesn't work for me. I'm sure it doesn't work for a lot of people," Mr. Cadman said.
Mr. Gaul said the Crown advanced the deal based on a review of its case he could not discuss in detail without releasing information that might threaten the looming trial of the remaining two defendants. Jury selection in those trials is to begin March 31. There are 14 Crown prosecutors working on the cases.
"[The agreement] is also consistent with the state of the evidence that the prosecution has with respect to this prosecution. Manslaughter is the appropriate conviction," Mr. Gaul said.
"The public would be outraged and upset if any comments that Crown counsel made could jeopardize the prosecution.... or the accused's right to a fair trial."
Reyat's lawyer sharply rejected reports suggesting his client would now testify against the other two men.
"He can be subpoenaed like any other citizen, but there's been no arrangement for that to happen," Mr. Gibbons said outside the court.
Mr. Gaul would only say, "With Mr. Reyat's guilty plea today, the legal impediment to calling Mr. Reyat as a witness has now been removed."
ibailey@nationalpost.com
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