Sunday, February 12 2006 15:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vancouver: Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing which left 329 people dead, is expected to be charged next week with perjury in connection with testimony he gave at the trial of two otheraccused.

Reyat, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the bombing of Air India's Kanishka flight, was called an unmitigated liar by the judge after he testified for the Crown at the trial of co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri in September 2003, 'The Vancouver Sun' reported.

Both Malik and Bagri were acquitted in March last year.

In his testimony, Reyat did not implicate either men and claimed not to know the name of a man who he said gave bomb components to him weeks before the June 23, 1985 bombing of Kanishka which crashed off the Irish coast into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 329 aboard.

A review of Reyat's testimony and whether a perjury charge could be supported began immediately after the March verdict in the case, in which judge Ian B Josephson harshly criticized him.

In the ruling, the judge said, "The most sympathetic of listeners could only conclude, as I do, that his evidence was patently and pathetically fabricated in an attempt to minimize his involvement in his crime to an extreme degree while refusing to reveal relevant information he clearly possesses."

Now Reyat, currently serving a 5-year sentence in Kingston in Ontario, is expected to be returned to British Columbia after being charged on Thursday with perjury and the first court appearance on the perjury charge is likely to take place on February 20. A perjury conviction can lead to a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.