B.C. court says four men accused of human smuggling not guilty
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has found four Sri Lankan men not guilty of human smuggling.
Justice Arne Silverman said Thursday that while there was evidence of organized crime in the smuggling operation, he wasn’t satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the men were connected to any crime.
“I have determined that these four accused were asylum seekers and that there is an air of reality to the defence of mutual aid.”
The accused — Francis Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah and Vignarajah Thevarajah — smiled, laughed and shook hands with their lawyers after the judge released his ruling.