Alleged confession about Iran nukes deemed inadmissible
The Star / Brendan Kennedy
25-May-2010

 

An alleged confession
made to RCMP officers by the first Canadian being tried under United
Nations anti-nuclear provisions will not be admitted into evidence
because the officers did not accurately record the statement.

“Without
any reliable record of what questions were asked and what answers given
. . . the Crown cannot prove its onus beyond a reasonable doubt,”
Justice Cathy Mocha told the court.

Mahmoud (David) Yadegari, 36,
is accused of trying to send devices to Iran that could be used to make
nuclear weapons.

The two RCMP officers who interrogated
Yadegari last April allege he told them in his holding cell that an
Iranian contact sent him money to buy pressure transducers and
instructed him to export them to a front company in Dubai so authorities
would not know their true destination.

The instruments, which
convert pressure measurements into electrical signals, can be used in
the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons.

RCMP Sgt. Kelly
Helowka testified Yadegari made the admissions spontaneously to him and
Corp. Peter Merrifield during a rapport-building session, not a formal
interview, so they did not make a video or audiotape, or take
contemporaneous notes.

Federal prosecutors Bradley Reitz and
Jennifer Conroy argued that since the alleged utterances were made in
the n... >>>

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