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Friday, February 11, 2011

Canada - MONTREAL - Dozens of bikers want megatrial stopped

OFF THE WIRE

torontosun.com/
By QMI Agency
Lawyers for 137 Hells Angels bikers arrested in a massive sweep nearly two years ago demanded Monday that the Crown drop all charges and immediately set them free.
Lawyers for the bikers filed a motion in Superior Court Monday, accusing the Crown of “abuse of procedures, impossibility of mounting a defence, unreasonable delays and illegality.”
Justice James Brunton, saying that he wanted to protect the jury pool, issued a publication ban that prevents media from reporting additional details. He said he would rule on the motion on April 15.
The defendants were rounded up in Project SharQc, an April 2009 police operation that dealt a crippling blow to the Hells Angels in Eastern Canada. The suspects face charges including first-degree murder, gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder.
Most of the defendants have since been held in a jail adjacent to a north-end Montreal courthouse specially built for biker mega-trials.
If the massive trials go ahead, defendants will be prosecuted in groups of eight or nine. The first trial might not start until September and could last as long as two years.
About 30 of the bikers are eligible for legal aid and their bill could cost Quebec taxpayers $4 million, or $145,000 per defendant for 23 lawyers. The bill could be much higher if the trial drags on.
What’s more, Quebecers will subsidize a portion of the legal costs for some bikers who are not eligible for legal aid, including Rene Pearson, former vice-president of the Hells Angels’ Quebec City chapter.
Annual costs for the 17 full-time Crown prosecutors are $1.7 million, and the lawyers will end up working for three years.
The mega-trial courthouse was reorganized at a cost of $3.9 million to accommodate the trials.