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Canadian Court grants $500,000 bail to Air India terrorist
VANCOUVER - Convicted terrorist Inderjit Singh Reyat will have to raise $500,000 bail before he is released from jail for the first time in more than 20 years, Canwest News Service has learned.
The conditions of his release were kept secret. "I think it is safe to say that they are about as strict as you can get. I am not prepared to go any further than that," said B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal. "But I think the public should know that. They are extremely strict. "But the presiding judge today wanted to hear from counsel before the bail conditions would be made public." However, Canwest News Service has confirmed that one of the conditions is bail to the tune of half-a-million dollars. Mr. Reyat's friends and supporters had not yet provided the court with sureties guaranteeing the bail by the time the appeal court registry closed yesterday. Relatives of Air India bombing victims said they were devastated that Mr. Reyat, 56, could soon be out despite allegations that he lied about his knowledge of the June, 1985 plot by Sikh extremists to target Air India flights with suitcase bombs. At 9:30 a.m. yesterday, Appeal Court Justice Anne Rowles overturned Associate Supreme Court Justice Patrick Dohm's decision in March denying the Air India participant bail on the grounds that to let him out on bail would undermine public confidence in the system. Judge Rowles' reasons for reversing the earlier ruling were also kept secret.
Mr. Oppal says the strict bail conditions for Mr. Reyat -- who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the Air India bombing that killed 329 people -- mean public confidence in the judicial system should not be undermined. Mr. Oppal said Mr. Reyat will first have to find sureties for the bail amount in order to be released. Registry spokesman Patrick Boyer said he had no idea when Mr. Reyat's supporters would attempt to meet the bail conditions. "I expect the sureties will be here tomorrow because it is a high bail," he told reporters yesterday, refusing to disclose the amount. Vancouver resident Rene Saklikar, who lost her aunt and uncle in the bombing, said she was blind-sided by the Reyat news. "I am deeply uneasy, deeply unhappy and have many unanswered questions," Ms. Saklikar said. "Air India is a Canadian epic that will haunt our nation until justice is served." The fact no one has been convicted of murder in the biggest terrorist plot in Canadian history frustrates family members, she said. Mr. Reyat has been in jail since he was arrested in February 1988 in England and charged in the Narita case. He unsuccessfully fought his extradition and was put on trial in 1990. He was convicted of manslaughter in 1991 for building a bomb that exploded on June 23, 1985, at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers. Just before his 10-year sentence was about to expire, he was charged in the Air India blast and received another five years after his plea in February 2003. Posted by: 2008-07-10 |
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