The province's Court of Appeal has told serial rapist Sofyan Boalag he can't appeal his dangerous offender status until he gets a lawyer.
Boalag was self-represented when his case was called in Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal Tuesday morning, appearing on a TV screen live from the Atlantic Institution, a federal prison in Renous, New Brunswick.
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"You were represented at trial by Jeff Brace. Is he going to represent you on appeal?" Justice Gale Welsh asked Boalag.
"I don't know who is going to represent me," Boalag replied. "I haven't talked to him. I can phone him, but I don't know."
Welsh explained the appeal could not go ahead until he had counsel, advising him to try contacting Brace first and then apply for legal aid if Brace declined.
Brace told The Telegram he will not be representing Boalag on appeal.
"I've always felt it's best for a fresh set of eyes to conduct... virtually any appeal, and I advised Sofyan when he made the decision to appeal," the defence lawyer said in a written message. Boalag had told him at that time he had already made contact with Legal Aid about the matter, Brace said.
Boalag was convicted in 2016 of sexually assaulting two women and a 15-year-old girl and of choking one of them, as well as robbery and weapons charges related to the attacks. Each of the females had been walking home in the downtown St. John's area in 2012 when Boalag brutally attacked them.
Boalag, 39, was subsequently declared a dangerous offender, with provincial court judge Pamela Goulding noting he had shown no remorse.
"There is no evidence before me that Mr. Boalag can be rehabilitated within a definite period of time," Goulding said at the time.
As a dangerous offender, Boalag will be imprisoned indefinitely, until he is deemed fit by a parole board for release with monitoring and strict conditions.
Boalag filed his handwritten notice of appeal shortly after he was given dangerous offender status last November. His notice indicates he's appealing the status on two grounds, though they relate to his original convictions instead. "Conflict of interest with Judge Goulding and Judge Pike. Police had no warrant to get my DNA," the document reads.
During his trial, Boalag and his lawyers had claimed Goulding was in a conflict of interest situation since her husband, Chief Justice Mark Pike, was the judge that issued the warrants to search Boalag's apartment and to obtain his DNA for analysis. An application to have a new trial judge, however, was denied.
Welsh did not set a date for Boalag's appeal, telling him it depended on how soon he got things in order.
"The faster you do these things, the more quickly we'll be able to hear your appeal," she said.
Lulzim (Leon) Jakupaj had a similar result when his appeal was called on Monday. Also self-represented, Jakupaj — who was recently convicted of sexually assaulted two women while on duty as a taxi driver two years ago — is appealing a prior conviction on a break and enter charge, for which he's currently doing a four-year sentence. Jakpuaj followed a woman inside her Kilbride home after dropping her off late one night in May 2016. Her boyfriend caught him looking in the bedroom doorway and confronted him; Jakupaj ran.
Jakupaj is asking the Court of Appeal to grant him a new trial, saying his rights were breached and the trial judge didn't like him.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
