Former SNC-Lavalin vice-president wants Libya fraud, bribery case thrown out over delays

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A former vice-president of SNC-Lavalin facing charges of fraud and bribery in connection with the company’s dealings in Libya is trying to get his case thrown out owing to what his lawyers claim are unreasonable delays.

Stéphane Roy’s lawyers argued in Quebec court on Wednesday that Crown prosecutors haven’t done enough to limit delays as the case approaches the 60-month mark. Defence lawyer Nellie Benoit said the Crown didn’t have its evidence ready early in the proceedings and then added a name to the witness list last December, which caused further delays.

Crown prosecutor Frédéric Hivon replied that the defence hadn’t objected to the pace of proceedings until recently, when it filed a motion for a stay of proceedings. He said a prosecutor’s list of evidence “isn’t an exact science” and added the Crown is permitted to adjust its witness list.

Mr. Roy, who was a vice-president and controller at the beleaguered engineering giant, was fired in February, 2012. He was acquitted in July, 2018, of fraud-related charges in connection with the construction of the McGill University Health Centre.

The charges he still faces stem from SNC-Lavalin’s dealings with the regime of the late Libyan dictator, Moammar Gadhafi. Mr. Roy was charged in 2014 with fraud over $5,000, bribing a foreign public official and violating United Nations sanctions against Libya. The Crown has since withdrawn the charge related to the UN sanctions.

An RCMP affidavit filed in relation to its investigation alleged that Roy was involved in a plot to smuggle Mr. Gadhafi’s son, Saadi, and his family into Mexico as the Libyan regime was failing in 2011.

His case stems from the same Project Assistance investigation that led to charges against SNC-Lavalin. Those charges are fuelling controversy in Ottawa in the wake of a Globe and Mail report that the Prime Minister’s Office pressed former attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help the company avoid criminal prosecution.

Ms. Benoit invoked the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2016 Jordan decision in support of a stay of proceedings against her client. The ruling set a limit of 30 months between the laying of charges and the anticipated end of a criminal trial in provincial court cases where there is a preliminary hearing.

Mr. Hivon said many of the delays in Mr. Roy’s case were because of circumstances at the Montreal courthouse before the Jordan decision, when lags in the system were common. “The prosecution always acted in a transparent way,” he told Justice Patricia Compagnone. “We always followed the game plan and we adjusted with time.”

Justice Compagnone has reserved her decision on the defence’s Jordan motion. Mr. Roy’s trial is scheduled to begin at the end of May.