Umar Zameer’s lawyer blasts ‘Trumpian’ demands for judge to apologize
Global News
The Toronto Police Association and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both called on the judge who suggested police witnesses may have colluded to apologize.
The lawyer who represented Umar Zameer is calling for a public inquiry into how police handled his client’s case and the creation of a new investigation by Ontario Provincial Police that cleared three Toronto officers of potentially colluding.
Defence lawyer Nadar Hasan panned the OPP report, saying it had relitigated evidence the jury had already settled on — and lambasting Toronto’s police union president and Premier Doug Ford, who said the judge in the case should apologize.
Hasan’s client, Zameer, was acquitted of first-degree murder by a jury in the death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup, a plainclothes officer who was fatally run over in downtown Toronto in the summer of 2021.
The judge in that case called into question the testimony of central witnesses in the Crown’s argument — Det. Lisa Forbes, Det. Const. Antonio Correa and Det. Const. Scharnil Pais — suggesting they lied and colluded.
Over the past two years, OPP has conducted an investigation into the suggestion, which cleared the officers this week.
After the report was made public, Toronto Police Association President Clayton Campbell said the judge should apologize for suggesting the police officers lied. Premier Ford echoed the call at an unrelated event.
Hasan said the demand was a “Trumpian” attempt to undermine the independence of the justice system.
“The premier who loudly denounced Mr. Zameer being granted bail five years ago has shoved his oar in to say that the trial judge ought to apologize,” he said.
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