Judge appoints lawyer to serve the court in trial of accused in U-Haul truck attack

Friday May 3, 2019
By Dustin Cook

A photo of Abdulahi Hasan Sharif shared with Postmedia by the woman he lived with for more than year. Sharif is charged in the 2017 Edmonton truck attack. Supplied / Edmonton

A lawyer will be appointed to assist in the trial of a man accused of running down and stabbing a police officer before striking pedestrians in downtown Edmonton with a U-Haul truck.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Belzil told Abdulahi Hasan Sharif Thursday he is granting the Crown’s application for the appointment of an amicus lawyer — meaning friend of the court — to represent the court throughout the jury trial scheduled for September.

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Sharif, 32, stood in the prisoner’s box with his arms crossed listening to the proceedings through a Somali interpreter. Belzil placed a publication ban on other details from Thursday’s hearing.

Last week in court, Belzil said Sharif had “one more chance” to find a lawyer or he would hear the Crown’s application for amicus counsel to be appointed.

Sharif fired his previous defence team in March, parting ways with Tom Engel and Samantha Labahn during a voir dire — a type of trial within a trial on the admissibility of evidence. Since then, Sharif has been without a lawyer, despite repeated requests from Belzil that he contact legal aid.

At the time, court heard Sharif, who is in custody at the remand centre, refused to meet with lawyer Greg Lazin, a senior lawyer from Victoria, B.C., recruited to take the case by Legal Aid Alberta.

Sharif’s romantic partner, with whom he lived prior to the events of Sept. 30, 2017, said in a letter to chief Crown prosecutor Shelley Bykewich that Sharif’s mental health has deteriorated significantly while in custody.

“He has become withdrawn and refuses to see me or speak to me,” she wrote.

As of the April 8 letter, she said he had not contacted legal aid or obtained a new lawyer.

Sharif was charged with 11 offences include five counts of attempted murder after the Sept. 30, 2017, vehicle attacks. Police initially referred to the incidents as acts of terror though no terrorism charges were ever laid.

Belzil has said he will not vacate nearly four months worth of trial dates, set to begin Sept. 30 with jury selection.

—With files from Jonny Wakefield

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