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Second hitman receives life sentence for Ripudaman Singh Malik's murder
Jose Lopez received a life sentence for the murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik, joining fellow hitman Tanner Fox.
A second person accused in the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik has also received a life sentence.
Jose Lopez, 26, was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 20 years in the British Columbia Supreme Court at New Westminster on Friday.
Lopez’s lawyer expressed remorse for the act on his behalf, according to a report in the outlet Vancouver Sun.
BC Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes said he was “satisfied” with the sentence as it was “a sensible and appropriate resolution of the charge,” the report stated.
Lopez faced charges related to second-degree murder, as did the other hitman accused in the case, 24-year-old Tanner Fox, who received a similar sentence on January 28.
Neither of them has revealed who hired them for the killing despite pleas from Malik’s family to do so.
The prosecution said the two accused shot Malik “multiple times” and that the act was “a planned and deliberate killing” and that they were “financially compensated for killing him.”
Malik was a controversial figure due to his being named as an accused in the Kanishka bombing on June 23, 1985, which led to the death of 329 people.
That attack by pro-Khalistani extremists remains the worst incident of terrorism in Canadian history. However, he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence, along with another accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri. Only the bombmaker, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was convicted but was released in 2016 after completing nearly two-thirds of his sentence.
In early 2022, Malik issued a public letter disavowing the Khalistan movement and praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was also believed to have an ongoing dispute with pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in the same town on June 18 last year. After being removed from a blacklist, Malik visited India that year, prior to being murdered.
Malik was killed on July 14, 2022, as he sat in his vehicle in the parking lot of his business in Surrey. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is conducting an ongoing investigation to ascertain who hired the accused.
Lopez and Fox were arrested by law enforcement in July 2022, within days of the murder.
At the time it occurred, the Surrey detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed that Malik was the victim of a targeted killing.
However, the separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has accused India of being behind Malik’s killing, as it alleged was the case with Nijjar, a claim made by Canadian authorities, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
