Canada to charge third suspect in Air India bombing

VANCOUVER, Canada -- Britain has given Canada permission to charge a third suspect in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people in history's deadliest act of aviation sabotage.

Officials said the suspect is Inderjit Singh Reyat, a 49-year-old who has almost completed a 10-year sentence in a Canadian jail for his role in an almost simultaneous bombing by Sikh religious extremists that killed two workers at Tokyo's Narita airport.

In order to file new charges against Reyat and delay his release, due in just a few days, Canada needed Britain to modify terms of a 1989 extradition order that brought him to Canada. The original order dealt only with his standing trial on the Narita blast.

British Columbia Criminal Justice Branch spokesman Geoffrey Gaul said Canadian prosecutors expected to file the new charges against Reyat this week, although he declined to say specifically what charges would be laid.

Canada last year charged Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri in the plot to bomb Air India flight 182. Police have long said they believed as many as six people were directly involved in the bombings.

Reyat was convicted of building a bomb that exploded at Tokyo airport in a suitcase being transferred to an Air India jet. It exploded about a hour before Air India Flight 182 blew up off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 people.

Most victims were Canadian

Both bombings are thought to be the work of Sikh extremists living in western Canada who were seeking revenge against India for the Indian Army's 1984 bloody storming of the Golden Temple -- Sikhism holiest shrine.

Reyat, a former auto electrician from Duncan, British Columbia, acknowledged buying some of the electronics used in the Narita bombing, but he denied knowing what the equipment was to be used for.

He has denied any connection with the Air India bombing.

Reyat is expected to be tried with Malik and Bagri. The trial is tentatively scheduled to start in February and is expected to last up to eight months.

The case is being prosecuted by Canada, because the bombs were believed built in the Vancouver area and because flight 182 originated in Canada. Most of the victims were Canadian.

Reuters contributed to this report.