Massacre at the mosque of Quebec: the evidence against Alexandre Bissonnette “virtually” complete

Kathleen Frenette

Friday, September 8, 2017 10:11

UPDATE
Friday, September 8, 2017 16:58

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Alexandre Bissonnette, the alleged perpetrator of the slaughter of the mosque of Quebec, appeared thin Friday morning in court, while the Crown said that the evidence against him was “virtually” complete.

On the stroke of 9: 30 a.m., Bissonnette, 27 years old, was brought to the dock of the palace of justice of Quebec in a room occupied primarily by journalists. Pale and pallid, the young man looked a little lost, but quickly, he began to listen to the exchanges that were taking place in front of him.

From the outset, the prosecutor for criminal and penal prosecutions, dr Thomas Jacques, has informed the judge Alain Morand, the public prosecutor had handed over “today,” the whole of the extraction computer made by the RCMP, as well as “several reports” from the laboratory of forensic sciences and forensic medicine of Montreal. In reality, the disclosure of proof is thus completed.

“There remains only a fringe element and, on 2 October, the […] date of the return of the case to the Court, the public ministry will be able to report its proof formally completed,” said mr. Jacques.

In defence, Charles-Olivier Gosselin asked that his client be exempted to appear before the court on the next date.

“The presence of my client creates a lot of work for everybody”, he said, targeting among other things the heavy security measures surrounding the presence of Bissonnette at the palace of justice.

This request has however been rejected by the judge.

It has also informed the tribunal that at this stage he was “not yet certain to make a request for the holding of a preliminary inquiry, or even as a possible investigation for release.”

The possible application of release of the accused thrills the muslim community which was represented on Friday by the co-founder of the islamic cultural Centre of Quebec, Boufeldja Benabdallah.

Questioned on the events that have followed on since the 29th of January, such as, for example, the burning of the vehicle of the president of the islamic cultural Center, Mr. Benabdallah has been scathing. “We need to find those who do these bad things for society to find peace”, he said.

“Those who hate us, those who hate us, know that we are citizens like you. I am a man of the people of quebec. So if these people have the pride of the quebec nation, and although they remove this hatred of the other because the other is a citizen like them,” he said in closing.