The lawyer for the man convicted of killing four members of a Muslim family in what the judge deemed an act of terrorism said his client was seeking to appeal the convictions.
Defense attorney Christopher Hicks said Nathaniel Veltman filed an “inmate notice of appeal,” which must be submitted within 30 days of sentencing to begin the appeal process.
Veltman was sentenced in February to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years after being convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting the Afzaal family with his truck in 2021 while they were walking in London, Ontario.
Forty-six-year-old Salman Afzaal, his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman, their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna, and his 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, were killed in the attack.
The couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously injured but survived.
Justice Renee Pomerance, who presided over the trial in Windsor, Ontario, ruled that the killings by a self-proclaimed white nationalist constituted an act of terrorism.
It was the first time that Canada’s terrorism laws were put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.
Prosecutors had argued that Veltman was a white supremacist with a plan to commit violence, while the defense argued his actions should not be considered terrorism because he kept his beliefs to himself.
But Judge Pomerance rejected that argument, finding that Veltman kept his beliefs private only to avoid detection before he could carry out his plan.
At a sentencing hearing in January, Veltman apologized for the pain he had caused, but that apology was rejected by the victims’ family members outside of court.