Trial may have to be moved
The high-profile trial of a man accused of two jailhouse stabbings may have to be held in Kelowna due to security concerns, a judge in Penticton heard Monday.
Afshin Maleki Ighani, 45, pleaded not guilty in provincial court to two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of assault causing bodily harm in connection with the incidents last year at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
He has been in custody for nearly a year awaiting trial on a raft of firearms, assault and kidnapping charges related to an alleged crime spree last spring that stretched from Oliver to Princeton. A charge of attempted murder arising from those incidents was dropped in December after the victim died of an unrelated cause.
While that case was working its way through the system, Ighani is alleged to have stabbed David James McHale on Sept. 9. 2017.
McHale, who in April 2017, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual interference, claims in a civil lawsuit he was in a secure yard for inmates in protective custody when a guard left to serve brunch and forgot to lock a gate behind him.
“After a few minutes, the yard door opened and (Ighani) burst in. He looked around and focused on me. He came toward me and proceeded to stab at me with a sharp shank and punch my head. He cut my arm and shirt,” McHale claimed.
During that same incident, Ighani is also alleged to have stabbed Peter Beckett, who was found guilty following a trial in Kelowna in September 2017 of killing his wife.
Ighani elected Monday to be tried on the assault charges by Supreme Court judge alone.
Crown counsel Ann Lerchs noted the two complainants and Ighani are all still in custody, which “might create some logistical problems” for the court and sheriffs at trial.
“As much as possible we would like to keep it here in Penticton, but (that could change) depending on what the sheriffs advise to the regional judge,” said Judge Meg Shaw. The matter returns to court March 7. Ighani’s trial on the kidnapping, assault and firearms charges is set to being June 4 in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton.
He has a lengthy criminal record that twice resulted in him being ordered deported from Canada.
Ighani successfully appealed the first order in 2002 and dodged the second attempt in 2007, when Canada did not send him back to his native Iran because he would face the death penalty, a source previously told the Herald.