Alberta’s Justice Minister says the public should be confident in the judicial process.
Minister Johnathan Denis made the comments Tuesday, one day after crown prosecutors announced charges relating to excessive force against three Edmonton police officers would not be laid, which goes against the recommendation of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.
“ASIRT is important because I want the public to have confidence that it’s not the police investigating the police, but it’s also important that the public understands the crown makes these decisions independent of any political interference from me or anybody else in the government,” said Denis.
In August 2011, the Edmonton Police Service was called to an altercation involving two men at a downtown business. One of the men was reportedly holding a meat hook and had gone back inside the business. Three officers arrived at the scene. ASIRT says the officers confronted El-Sayed Sobieh inside the business where Sobieh appeared to be non-compliant. The three officers took Sobieh to the ground and handcuffed him.
After Sobieh was released, he made a formal complaint of excessive force against the officers. He contended his allegations could be supported by video surveillance cameras at his business. You can watch the footage below:
ASIRT investigated the incident, then made a recommendation to the crown criminal charges be laid against the officers.
“The crown provided me an opinion and recommended no criminal charges be laid in relation to the conduct of the three subject officers in this incident, as such, no criminal charges were laid,” ASIRT executive director Clif Purvis announced during a press conference on Monday.
The crown says their standards for pursuing criminal charges are different than ASIRT.
“ASIRT was satisfied there was a reasonable suspicion that criminal offenses had been committed by the police; that’s the basis upon which he sent the case to the crown. We have to be satisfied, with accordance to our policy and protocol, that we have a reasonable likely hood of conviction. It’s a far higher test,” explained assistant deputy minister of criminal justice Gregg Lepp.
While the two sides didn’t come to the same conclusion, they’re satisfied the investigation was thorough and independent.
But El-Sayed Sobieh calls the decision disgusting.
“I feel it’s license for the cops just to beat the citizens or have fun. They were having fun. They weren’t beating me for anything like that. They were just having fun, laughing,” said Sobieh after Monday’s press conference.
“There is an appearance of bias. There’s something really broken with this system when you have a guy like Clif Purvis thinking that there ought to be charges laid and then you have the prosecution service saying, no. There has to be reform, explained Sobieh’s lawyer Tom Engel.
Sobieh is planning to continue fighting his case. His lawyer says he will take the matter to Edmonton’s Chief of Police Rod Knecht who could charge the officers under the Police Act.
“I’d be shocked if Chief Knecht doesn’t order that they be charged under the Police Act and those are serious charges,” said Engel.
Sobieh faced charges of assault, possession of a weapon and uttering threats after the incident, but the charges against him were stayed last week.
With files from Fletcher Kent, Global News
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