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Tuesday, May 30, 2000

Judge clears way for people-smuggling trial to begin

Mark Hume
National Post

VICTORIA - The federal government's first attempt to prosecute individuals for smuggling people into Canada cleared two major hurdles here yesterday, when a Supreme Court justice threw out a mistrial motion and ruled a trial should go ahead.

The trial of nine Koreans accused of smuggling 131 Chinese migrants into the country is expected to get underway within days.

For the past 54 days, the case against the crew of the Ryong Pusan No. 705 has been caught up in legal wrangling as six defence lawyers and two Crown attorneys battled about procedure in a voir dire -- a hearing in which the jury was excluded and about which the press was forbidden from reporting in detail.

In an unusual undertaking, Ronald McKinnon, the British Columbia Supreme Court Justice hearing the case, has twice briefed reporters on what they can and can't report, allowing some details to be published.

That brought a mistrial application from the Crown -- but Justice McKinnon said yesterday he doubts enough material has been released to "poison the minds" of the jurors.

Justice McKinnon also backed away from a warning he'd given earlier, that a stay in proceedings would be ordered if the accused men weren't released from jail.

Prior to the judge's ruling, the Crown attacked the team of six defence lawyers, alleging they were trying to "manipulate the system" in order to get their clients off.

The nine Koreans were arrested last Aug. 11, after their ship was intercepted in international waters.

The accused are each charged with three counts of "aiding or abetting" the group of 131 Chinese migrants to come ashore, and each faces two counts of causing bodily harm to individuals.


 
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