There’s enough evidence to send a MUN student’s attempted murder case to trial, a provincial court judge has decided.
After hearing a preliminary inquiry into the matter, Judge James Walsh made the determination Thursday morning in St. John’s, setting 30-year-old Masih Allahbakhshi to be arraigned in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in September.
The engineering PhD student is accused of trying to kill a fellow MUN student by hurling him over a cliff while the pair was walking on Signal Hill in April of last year. The two men fell about 20 feet, and the victim received minor injuries.
Allahbakhshi was arrested shortly afterward and ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment, which deemed him fit to stand trial. He was subsequently released on bail with a number of conditions.
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He has pleaded not guilty to the charge and his trial had been scheduled to happen last February, but it was postponed after his lawyer, Ken Mahoney, withdrew from the case due to a breakdown in client-solicitor relationship. Defense lawyer Mark Gruchy took over the file and represented Allahbakhshi at the preliminary inquiry.
After receiving the news Thursday that he’d be going to trial, Allahbakhshi left the courtroom and entered another one, where he was set to make an appearance on a separate charge involving the same victim.
Allahbakhshi is accused of having given the man prescription drugs in an incident four days before the Signal Hill event. The charge wasn’t laid until January, when police received forensic testing results. Allahbakhsi was granted bail again and given the same conditions as previously ordered, with an extra order banning him from working or volunteering in any capacity requiring him to prepare or serve food or drink to others.
Gruchy asked for a postponement on that charge in order to review some material, and the case will be called again July 30.
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Twitter: @tara_bradbury
