Judge orders release of police statement from accused killer
TORONTO The trial of a man accused of killing 10 people in a deadly Toronto van attack will turn on his state of mind at the time, not whether he was behind the wheel, a judge said Friday.
Justice Anne Molloy, who will oversee Alek Minassian’s trial next year, made the comments as she ordered a publication ban to be lifted next month on what the 26-year-old told police hours after his arrest.
Minassian’s lawyer had sought the ban to prevent the potential tainting of witnesses at trial, which will begin Feb. 10, but Molloy rejected the argument.
“It is hard to imagine a witness being called who will not already know that Mr. Minassian drove a van down a Toronto sidewalk killing and injuring many people,” she wrote in her decision. “The central issue at trial will be Mr. Minassian’s state of mind at the relevant times.”
Minassian is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder in the incident that took place on Yonge Street on April 23, 2018.
Several media organizations — including The Canadian Press — fought the defence request for the publication ban, which will be lifted on Sept. 27.
Pre-trial documents are usually protected by a standard publication ban designed to protect a jury from being tainted.
In late June, the Crown and the defence agreed to proceed with a judge-alone trial, leading to a media attempt to publish Minassian’s police statement. That prompted defence lawyer Boris Bytensky’s push for a publication ban. The Canadian Press