Veltman faces as much as life in jail if convicted of first-degree homicide. (Representational)
Ottawa:
A Canadian man was “trying to find Muslims to kill” when he slammed his pickup truck right into a household out on a night stroll, the prosecution stated in closing arguments Tuesday.
Nathaniel Veltman, now 22, is on trial for wiping out three generations of the Afzaal household in June 2021 in London, Ontario.
He pleaded not responsible to 4 counts of homicide, which prosecutors say had been premeditated, in addition to one rely of tried homicide.
The case marks the primary time a Canadian jury has been requested to contemplate a terrorism motive associated to white supremacy.
Whereas acknowledging Veltman’s accountability for the killings, the protection stated he must be convicted of a lesser cost of manslaughter.
Prosecutor Fraser Ball informed the jury they’ve “every thing you may presumably must convict on this case,” together with the defendant’s confession to police.
He stated Veltman had penned a “terrorist manifesto,” discovered on his laptop, by which he espoused white nationalism and described his hate for Muslims.
The accused “dressed like a soldier” sporting physique armor and a helmet, and “pumped himself up” earlier than the assault. “He was trying to find Muslims to kill,” Fraser stated.
‘Pedal to the steel’
When Veltman handed the Afzaal household on a London road, the Crown legal professional stated, he turned his pick-up truck round and accelerated “pedal to the steel,” leaping the curb as he drove into them.
Our bodies flew into the air.
Salman Afzaal, 46, his spouse Madiha Salman, 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah and her grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74, had been killed. A nine-year-old boy orphaned within the ramming suffered severe however non-life-threatening accidents.
Veltman was arrested in a close-by parking zone and informed police he needed to “ship a powerful message” in opposition to Muslim immigration.
Ball stated that message was “brutal and terrifying: Depart this nation otherwise you and your family members could possibly be subsequent.”
Protection lawyer Christopher Hicks argued that Veltman suffered from psychological problems and childhood traumas that led to “despair and nervousness.”
He additionally consumed three grams of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms previous to the assault that, in accordance with Hicks, left him feeling indifferent or disconnected from actuality “as if in a dream or surreal state, a state of utmost confusion whereby his mind was in turmoil.”
“He’s chargeable for the deaths of those individuals,” Hicks concluded, however added that Veltman didn’t have the required “psychological acuity for planning and deliberation” for homicide or terrorism.
Veltman faces as much as life in jail if convicted of first-degree homicide. Manslaughter carries a most penalty of seven years in jail.
This was the deadliest anti-Muslim assault in Canada since a taking pictures at a mosque in Quebec Metropolis in 2017 that left six lifeless. The perpetrator of that taking pictures was not charged with terrorism.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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