March 02, 2018 - 1:50 PM
MONTREAL - Crown attoneys in Quebec say they will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear an appeal of a case involving the first suspect in the province set free under new rules limiting the length of trials.
Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham was charged with second-degree murder after his wife was found dead in the couple's home with knife wounds to her neck in 2012.
But, he was set free and never stood trial because a judge ruled his case exceeded a 2016 Supreme Court decision that set time limits for criminal cases.
The Crown appealed the decision to stay legal proceedings against him, but he was ordered to be deported to Sri Lanka.
Quebec's appellate court dismissed the Crown's appeal in early February because the suspect was in Sri Lanka and it was unlikely he would return to stand trial.
Chief Justice Nicole Duval Hesler dissented, however, and said the lower court judge should not have stayed proceedings, citing a matter of principle that "commands that the right of women to be free from the domestic violence."
Crown spokesman Jean Pascal Boucher says in an email Friday that prosecutors will use Hesler's dissent to mount their case for appeal.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018