The Federal Minister of Justice ordered a new trial for a man found guilty of murder in Alberta more than three decades.
Roy Allan Sobotiak was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Susan Kaminsky, who disappeared in 1987.
The Minister of the Minister of Justice, Arif Virani, said that the Minister had found reasonable reasons to conclude that there had been a miscarriage of justice in the case.
Virani’s office said that on Wednesday, new information had been identified, which was not examined by the courts during the trial or the initial appeal.
Innocence Canada, who worked on the case of Sobotiak, said that Sobotiak “expresses his gratitude to the Minister of his decision and hopes that he will soon be a free man.”
The group declared in a press release that Sobotiak, who was now 62, “still insisted on his innocence and has never been released parole”.
He is in a federal penitentiary in Alberta and spent more than 35 years in prison.
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Innocence Canada said he had contacted the Alberta crown prosecution service to ask questions about the next steps.
The Alberta Court of Appeal rejected Sobotiak’s appeal in 1994 and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear its appeal in 2004.
Sobotiak was sentenced in 1991. According to the judgment of the 1994 Court of Appeal, Kaminsky – whose body was never found – was last seen in the company of Sobotiak.
He noted that the “main proof” against Sobotiak was a video of him admitting a plainclothes policeman that he was responsible for the murder.
Sobotiak asked for the office of the Minister of Justice for a conviction in February 2021.
The government’s press release said that the Minister’s order is not a decision concerning the guilt or innocence of the applicant. This is a decision to submit the case before the courts where new relevant legal issues can be determined in accordance with the law. »»
The federal government strives to set up a new unjustified condemnation examination body to replace the current ministerial examination process, which has been criticized for having taken too long to examine too little.
Over the past 20 years, 200 requests have experienced an unjustified sentence and 30 cases have been canceled.
Experts say that once the implementation, the new miscarriage of miscarriage could see hundreds of requests.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press