One of two hitmen hired to kill former Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes sentenced Tanner Fox for second-degree murder in front of a New Westminster courtroom packed full of Malik’s friends and relatives following an emotional morning in which Malik’s daughter-in-law begged the young killer to give up the names of the people who hired him.
Fox and accomplice Jose Lopez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last October, with Lopez due back in court on Feb. 6.
Malik, who was acquitted of charges related to the 1985 Air India bombing, was shot dead in Surrey, B.C, on July 14, 2022.
Fox and Lopez, who were both in their early 20s at the time of the killing, were originally charged with first-degree murder less than two weeks after the killing.
They still face automatic life sentences on the lesser charges of second-degree murder.
Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers have jointly proposed that they not be eligible for parole for 20 years.
‘Hired and paid’
An agreed statement of facts provided by the B.C. Prosecution Service says Fox and Lopez were “hired and paid” to carry out the murder, but police and prosecutors have not revealed who they believe hired the pair to assassinate the Sikh businessman.
Malik was shot dead in his Tesla at a business park in Surrey, B.C.
In 2005, Malik was acquitted in B.C. Supreme Court along with his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, of charges related to the bombings aimed at two Air India planes that killed 331 people in June 1985.
One bomb blew up over the ocean off Ireland, killing all 329 on board, while the second device exploded at Narita airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers.
A 2005 Canadian government report concluded the bombings were carried out by Sikh Khalistani separatists in Canada, including bomb-maker Inderjit Singh Reyat, who was convicted of manslaughter.