Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham arrives for a detention review at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in Montreal on April 13, 2017.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled that a Sri Lankan national who saw a murder charge against him stayed due to trial delays – and who has since been deported from Canada – will not stand trial.
In 2017, Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham avoided trial for the killing of his wife Anuja Baskaran when a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled that the nearly 60-month delay between his 2012 arrest and the start of his trial was excessive.
The Jordan decision, a 2016 Supreme Court ruling, set a 30-month limit between the laying of charges and a trial for Superior Court cases.
Following his release, Thanabalasingham was deported to his native Sri Lanka, but the Crown contested the stay and asked the Quebec Court of Appeal to order a new trial.
The court didn’t hear the case, noting it had become irrelevant and theoretical, but it was ordered to take a second look by the Supreme Court of Canada.
On Tuesday, three out of five judges upheld the original decision and rejected the Crown’s appeal once more, ruling the original judges had not erred in refusing to hear the case.
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