Sentence reduced for Quebec City mosque shooter
Posted November 26, 2020 10:33 am.
Last Updated November 26, 2020 2:48 pm.
QUEBEC CITY – The Quebec Court of Appeal has declared a provision of the Criminal Code that allows for life sentences to be served consecutively unconstitutional, reducing the sentence given to the man who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
Alexandre Bissonnette was sentenced in February 2019 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years.
With Thursday’s decision from the Quebec Court of Appeal, Bissonnette will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 25 years.
#BREAKING
The Court of Appeal has ruled in the case of Quebec City mosque shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette.
Bissonnette will be eligible to apply for parole after serving at least 25 years of his sentence, the Court of Appeal has ruled. #Quebec #quebecattack https://t.co/3Ja5LHiMfU— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) November 26, 2020
Since 2011, the Criminal Code has allowed judges to impose consecutive sentences for multiple murders in blocks of 25 years, but the trial judge in Bissonnette’s case rewrote the law and instead sentenced the killer to 40 years.
Bissonnette pleaded guilty in March 2018 to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder.
His victims were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.
