The only man who ever served time for the deaths of 331 people in the Air India bombings was found guilty of perjury Saturday after jurors spent more than 20 hours deliberating.

The always stoic Inderjit Singh Reyat showed little emotion as the verdict was read, a finding that will likely mean he'll face even more time in prison.

Reyat was accused by the Crown of lying repeatedly at the 2003 trial of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, who were charged with mass murder in the bombings. They were acquitted and Reyat was charged with perjury in 2006.

The indictment against Reyat lists 19 instances when he lied during his testimony, but the judge at his perjury trial told jurors they needed to be convinced he lied only once and that the entire jury did not have to agree on when.

Crown lawyer Len Doust told jurors this week that Reyat did not tell the truth under oath to minimize his involvement in the bombing and to protect people who conspired to bomb two Air India planes on June 23, 1985.

Air India Flight 182 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland when a suitcase bomb exploded, killing 329 passengers and crew who'd left Montreal for London.

That disaster followed another blast about an hour earlier at Tokyo's Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died when a suitcase bomb meant for another Air India flight exploded prematurely.

On Saturday, Reyat's lawyer, Ian Donaldson, asked the judge to release Reyat until his sentencing date, about two months away, because he needs his client "at large to prepare a proper sentencing."

He called for a two- to three-year sentence, saying Reyat has complied impeccably with his bail conditions for more than two years..

Donaldson also noted Reyat has already spent a total of 25 years in prison for his role in the Air India bombings.

But the judge rejected Donaldson's request and said Reyat will be immediately imprisoned.

Reyat has served a 10-year sentence for the Narita bombing and pled guilty to manslaughter in the Air India Flight 182 blast.

The nine women and three men on the jury in Reyat's perjury trial relied solely on a recording of his testimony from the Air India trial, and no witnesses were called.

In his closing address, Doust told jurors that Reyat deflected questions while he was on the stand and concocted lies that were so blatant, they defied common sense.

Doust said Reyat lied to protect himself from retribution by people he feared and also to protect the two men on trial.

But Reyat's lawyer, Ian Donaldson, said the Crown failed to prove his client had a motive to lie.

Reyat testified a leader of the Barbara Khalsa, a banned Sikh separatist group, asked him to collect bomb-making material but that he didn't know what the explosive device would be used for and didn't ask any questions.

He eventually testified Talwinder Singh Parmar wanted the bomb to blow up something heavy in India and that he agreed to help him because he was upset with the Indian government's treatment of Sikhs.

During his testimony, Reyat said he didn't remember the name of a man who stayed at his Duncan, B.C., home for almost a week in early June 1985 and took over bomb-making duties after he failed to satisfy Parmar when the two conducted a test explosion.

Reyat also said that when he heard about the deaths of the 331 people killed in the bombings, he didn't think his involvement in collecting parts for explosives had anything to do with the disasters.

"If you believe that, I direct you to somebody who'll sell you a bridge," said Doust, who also cross-examined Reyat at the Air India trial.

Donaldson said his client didn't remember certain events but that's because they'd occurred nearly 20 years earlier and few people can recall even significant matters from two decades earlier.

"Where were you when you first heard of the GST?" he said to jurors as an example.

Donaldson also noted that the judge at the Air India trial denied Doust's request to have Reyat declared a hostile witness after alleging he was lying on the stand.

The Crown maintains Sikhs in British Columbia hatched a plot to bomb government-owned Air India planes after the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984.

He has been out of prison on bail since July 2008 in connection with his perjury charge.