Kanishka bombing: Reyat sentenced to nine years

In handing down his sentence, British Columbia Superior Court judge Mark McEwan observed Reyat was "nothing like a remorseful man."

"The effect of Reyat``s perjury on the outcome of the trial is incalculable," Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said quoting Justice McEwan.

Reyat will receive 17 months credit for the time spent in pre-trial custody, reducing his sentence to seven years and seven months.

Crown prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence for perjury of 14 years.

According to the prosecutor, Reyat had deliberately misled the Air India trial 19 times over three days of testimony that began on September 10, 2003.

Reyat was found guilty of perjury last September for lying under oath during the 2003 trial of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, both of whom were acquitted in the bombings.

He has already spent 15 years in prison -? 10 years for manslaughter in the deaths of two baggage handlers, and five in exchange for testimony that he helped build the bomb that brought down the Air India Flight 182.

Bagri and Malik had been charged with conspiring to blow up the Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, and of causing another explosion the same day that killed two baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Tokyo.

The aircraft was off the coast of Ireland, en route from Montreal to London, England and New Delhi when an explosive device went off in the cargo hold, killing all 329 people aboard.

Malik and Bagri were eventually acquitted.

Seven years later, on September 18, 2010, the Crown proved that Reyat had lied repeatedly under oath during their trial.

For example, Reyat claimed never to have learned the name or other basic facts about an unnamed conspirator in the bombing, even though the man had stayed at Reyat``s home on Vancouver Island for several days.

At Friday``s sentencing hearing, McEwan said much of the evidence Reyat gave under oath was inconsistent with common sense and that his lies, just months after the guilty plea as part of the deal that included his testimony, "bespoke a deep and abiding rejection of Canadian values."