Canada to charge British terrorist over Air India outrage

Canadian prosecutors will this week file charges against convicted British bombmaker Inderjit Singh Reyat over the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight in which 329 people died.

Reyat’s 10-year prison sentence for another bombing expires on Friday.

‘‘Mr Reyat will be charged prior to his release from prison,’’ prosecution spokesman Geoff Gaul said in Vancouver.

Reyat, who has both British and Canadian citizenship, was extradited from England in 1989 to face trial for a bombing on June 23, 1985 at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. Two baggage handlers were killed.

An hour after that explosion, another bomb brought down Air India Flight 182, from Montreal to New Delhi. All 329 people on board the jumbo jet, most of them Canadians, were killed.

Police believe both bombs originated in British Columbia, Canada.

They blame militant Sikh separatists targeting India’s national airline, since the bomb at the Tokyo airport was left in luggage destined for a second Air India plane.

Reyat was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the Tokyo bombing and was sentenced to a Vancouver-area prison.

British extradition laws would not allow fresh charges to be filed against Reyat in the Air India bombing without British permission, but yesterday the Home Office said it had given the go-ahead.

Reyat was named as a co-conspirator in charges filed last October against Sikh cleric Ajaib Singh Bagri and millionaire businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik.

‘‘We currently have two individuals charged. We intend to add Mr Reyat,’’ Gaul said. ‘‘Once that happens, we’re continuing with the prosecution.’’

Bagri, from Kamloops, British Columbia, and Malik, from Vancouver, were arrested on October 27 and charged with murder and conspiracy in the Flight 182 explosion.

Malik and Bagri are charged with those deaths and the attempted killings of the passengers and crew of the Air India flight out of Tokyo.

Reyat will not face further charges in connection with the Tokyo bombing.