Prosecutors deny offering deal to Air India convict

TORONTO: Canadian prosecutors on Saturday denied offering reduced sentence to the lone convict in the 1985 Air India bombing on prejury charges if he reveals information on his accomplices but maintained that any "pre-trial bargaining" will remain confidential
   
The Globe and Mail Daily on Friday reported that British Columbia government had told Inderjit Singh Reyat that he would receive a sentence in the range of two to five years in exchange for valuable information about others involved in Kanishka airliner bombing that killed 329 people, mostly of Indian origin.

Reyat, who was described by the Air India trial judge as an "unmitigated liar", is currently serving a five-year sentence that will end on February nine and faces a maximum of 14 years in jail if he is found guilty on prejury charges.
    
Geoff Gaul, the Crown spokesman, denied media reports that the prosecutors offered Reyat a reduced sentence on prejury charges if he informs on his co-conspirators.
    
"No deal has been offered," he said.
    
"It is privilege information whether there was a pre-trial bargaining and discussion between defence and crown lawyers," Gaul said.
    
He said any discussions between defence and Crown lawyers would be confidential to protect Reyat's right to a fair trial, set to begin Feb 4.

Canadian law permits pre-trial bargaining as a legitimate component of the criminal justice system in the country.
   
The Supreme Court of Canada has long asserted the need for prosecutorial discretion in such matters and stressed that the crown must possess a fair deal of discretion in the criminal justice system.

The apex court in a number of judgments made it clear that the courts should not intervene in pre-trial bargaining process unless there is abuse of process which could bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Reyat was found guilty of providing bomb parts placed in a suitcase that exploded aboard Air India's Montreal-London-Mumbai flight on June 23, 1985 to send it crashing shortly after midnight as the aircraft was over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all on board.
    
An indictment filed in February, 2006, listed 27 instances in which Reyat allegedly lied while testifying at the trial of Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and Kamloops mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri in 2003.

Malik and Bagri were subsequently released.      At the time, Crown prosecutor Len Doust called Reyat a hostile witness who told "a pack of lies."