Levin appeals harbouring sentence

Alexander Fiodor Levin isn’t happy with the outcome of pleading guilty to concealing his daughter in the Philippines.

The 47-year-old filed an appeal last week with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal regarding his sentencing on Jan. 29 in Saskatoon provincial court.

Levin received 15 months in jail, minus three months’ remand credit, for hiding his two-year-old daughter from the girl’s mother in revenge against the woman, who was his Brazilian mistress, for having an affair.

Levin says Judge Daryl Labach erred by not entering a stay of proceedings — a highly unusual basis for an appeal — and argues that the judge erred by “inappropriately applying aggravating factors” while deciding on his sentence.

Labach listed seven aggravating factors in his sentencing decision, including a number of a convictions on Levin’s criminal record, plus the facts that Levin left his daughter with a stranger in a foreign country and never apologized to the girl’s mother or showed any remorse except to say that he himself felt victimized.

Labach acknowledged in his ruling that Levin asked for a stay of proceedings, but said it wasn’t appropriate as there was no evidence of abuse of process or charter breaches in his case.

A date hasn’t been set for the appeal hearing.