Vancouver: Key witness Inderjit Singh Reyat's testimony at the Air India trial, was "a pack of lies" intended to protect those responsible for the twin bombings in 1985 which killed 331 people, a Canadian government Prosecutor has said.

"Reyat consistently failed to tell the truth. His testimony reflected his hostility towards the prosecution and his intention is to conceal, obfuscate and mislead," Prosecutor Leonard Doust told the British Colombia court hearing the trial on September 13.

Also, in a highly unusual procedure, Doust asked Justice Ian Bruce Josephson to rule that Reyat was hostile towards the prosecution, media reports said.

If the court accedes to Doust's request, the prosecutor will be entitled to cross examine Reyat on his testimony as if he was a defence witness. Else, Reyat's statements would remain as evidence in the trial, Canadian daily 'The Globe and Mail' said.

The prosecution had subpoenaed Reyat to testify in the mass murder trial. Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and Kamloops mill-worker Ajaib Singh Bagri face murder charges for the death of 329 people on board the Kanishka flight which crashed off the Irish Coast on June 23, 1985 and the death of two baggage handlers in Japan's Narita Airport 54 minutes later.

Reyat, a former auto-mechanic from Duncan, was convicted of manslaughter in 1991 in the Narita bombing case and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February this year for the death of all passengers on the Air India flight.

PTI