|
|
 |
Home - My Yahoo! - Help |
 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| |||
Monday May 29 7:42 PM ET
VICTORIA (CP) - A trial against nine Koreans charged with smuggling Chinese migrants to British Columbia will go ahead despite the judge's earlier misgivings about the case. Justice Ronald McKinnon of the B.C. Supreme Court said the case will proceed because he is satisfied that the nine accused of human smuggling will get full and free access to lawyers.
Ten days ago, McKinnon said he was inclined to throw the case out because he said the Crown violated the rights of the accused to a fair trial.
McKinnon said the Crown failed to disclose or was late in disclosing up to 4,500 pages of evidence to the defence.
He was prepared to release the nine Koreans on $5 bail so they could have better access to lawyers. However, Canadian Immigration said it was prepared to hold them on detention orders.
On Monday, McKinnon said he is convinced the accused will get the access to lawyers they need while in jail.
"I came to a conclusion that the release wasn't necessary to effect full answer and defence," McKinnon said.
"I simply put matters back to where they were prior to making the release order." © The Canadian Press, 2000
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |