MONTREAL — Quebec's director of criminal and penal prosecutions says it will appeal a decision that saw a man accused of murder set free due to delays in getting his case to trial.
The Crown says it will appeal last week's decision in the case of a Sri Lankan man, Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham.
He was charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of his 21-year-old wife, Anuja Baskaran.
Thanabalasingham, now 31, was arrested in August 2012 and spent 56 months in jail without a trial, which is almost double the ceiling set out in a Supreme Court ruling referred to as the Jordan decision.
Superior Court Justice Alexandre Boucher handed down his decision on April 6, triggering outrage and calls for more action from provincial politicians.
Since the high court ruled last summer, it was the the first homicide case in Quebec in which a stay of proceedings was granted.
That ruling set a deadline of up to 30 months for a case in Superior Court to reach trial from the time someone is arrested. In lower courts, it is 18 months.
In their appeal, the prosecution argued that the judge did not take into account delays caused by the defence or the complexity of the case.
Thanabalasingham, who is not a Canadian citizen, is also facing a deportation order to his native Sri Lanka based on several domestic violence convictions accumulated prior to his wife's death. Pending an appeal, he has asked the Immigration and Refugee Board for bail while awaiting a hearing.
- With files from CTV Montreal
