Questions linger after investigation into Lindsay jail death ends without charges laid

The family of Soleiman Faqiri awants to know why no one is being charged in connection with the 30-year-old’s death in a Lindsay jail almost a year ago.

“This was a brother. This was a son. This was an uncle,” Soleiman’s brother Yusuf said. “This was a Canadian. This was a human being.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "This was a brother. This was a son. This was an uncle," Soleiman's brother Yusuf said. "This was a Canadian. This was a human being."

Faqiri died Dec. 15, 2016, following an altercation with several correctional officers at the Central East Correctional Centre. He had been brought to the Lindsay jail 11 days earlier after he was arrested by Durham police on assault and uttering threats charges.

Faqiri had a history of Schizophrenia. His family says he was waiting to be transferred to a mental health facility.

Earlier this week, City of Kawartha Lakes police said they had finished the 11-month investigation into Faqiri’s death, and would not be laying any charges.

Yusuf said the news came as a shock.

“You have a grieving family who are looking for answers, and they’re still not being answered,” Yusuf said.

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City of Kawartha Lakes Sgt. Tom Hickey said a coroner’s report on Faqiri’s death was a factor in the police investigation.

“That report has stated that the cause of death was unascertained, in that the injuries that he suffered were not significant enough to cause his death,” Hickey said.

But Ted Marrocco, a lawyer representing Faqiri’s family, says the police response is “inexplicable.”

“This case confirmed that Mr. Faqiri, the deceased, had more than 50 impact injuries to his body in the moments before he died,” Marrocco said. “So right there you have some grounds to believe an assault occurred.”

Hickey said police went to both the local and regional Crown attorneys, who each said the evidence did not meet the threshold to lay criminal charges.

Hickey said more information may be released when a Coroner’s Investigation into Faqiri’s death takes place.