DNA found on gun hidden in engine compartment being investigated

DNA found on a gun hidden in a car’s engine compartment is being investigated further by police as the list of charges continues to grow against a South Okanagan man.

Afshin Maleki Ighani, 45, is facing multiple charges linked to an alleged crime spree throughout the South Okanagan and Princeton areas, including kidnapping, firearms charges and an assault, that led to his arrest on April 22, 2017. He has been in custody since.

Crown counsel John Swanson brought up the recent developments in the investigation at a pre-trial conference Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton, where Burnaby lawyer Paul McMurray was officially put on record as Ighani’s counsel.

“When police initially arrested Mr. Ighani, they searched the vehicle from which he had fled and in the engine compartment of that vehicle they located a handgun,” Swanson said.

Swanson said forensic investigators swabbed the gun and found a partial DNA profile.

“It’s my understanding the police did not follow up on that, however, and did not until very recently — and when I say recently it may have even happened last week — obtained a provincial court order for a blood sample from Mr. Ighani,” Swanson said.

Both Swanson and McMurray conceded there may be delays if further charges are put forward, although a five-day trial is still scheduled to start June 4.

Ighani is also facing charges stemming from the alleged stabbing of two inmates in November 2017 at the Okanagan Correctional Centre, and on May 3 new charges were sworn alleging he assaulted a female jail guard there.

Those most recent charges prompted McMurray to ask Justice Kathleen Ker for an order that his client stay at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, having “outstayed his welcome at OCC.” Ker granted the order.

Ighani has a lengthy criminal record, which twice resulted in him being ordered deported from Canada to his native Iran.

He successfully appealed the first order in 2002, and a source previously told The Herald he dodged the second deportation attempt in 2007 when Canada opted not to send him back to Iran because he would face the death penalty there.