The former construction tycoon, Tony Accurso, will not have to wait in prison for the result of his final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: the Quebec Court of Appeal granted him his request for reinstatement on Tuesday morning. freedom.
At the end of May, the Court of Appeal had confirmed the guilty verdicts pronounced against the man in 2018 at the end of his trial for corruption and collusion, as well as his prison sentence of 4 years.
At the heart of this lawsuit was a system put in place during the reign of the former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, between 1996 and 2010. It ensured that the municipality awarded public contracts to companies that offered to the mayor or its associates a 2% rebate.
The Court of Appeal had ordered Tony Accurso to surrender by June 1 at the latest.
But at the very last minute — on May 31 — his lawyers filed an application for leave to appeal that judgment to the Supreme Court, as well as another to be released.
The public prosecutor did not contest his request to remain free during the rest of the legal proceedings, although this absence of protest does not bind the Court of Appeal. It nevertheless made a point of evaluating the applicable principles of law.
The Chief Justice of the Court who rendered the judgment, magistrate Manon Savard, questions the “seriousness of the grounds of appeal” of Tony Accurso before the Supreme Court, since he presents essentially the same arguments as those offered in the Court of Appeal. “We can indeed wonder if the Court would have actually been mistaken on all the questions on which it was called upon to rule, without exception”, she indicates.
“Having said that, the grounds of appeal nevertheless seem tenable. »
She then assesses whether Mr. Accurso is at risk of fleeing. The judge says she has no reason to believe that he will not appear in court or in prison if required: throughout the criminal proceedings, while he was at liberty, he failed in any of his obligations , she recalls.
Then, she assesses whether the release of the 70-year-old man could undermine public confidence in the justice system. Here too, his respect for the orders of the Court in the past, his age, his lack of criminal record and the fact that his crimes did not endanger the safety of the citizens, militate for a release.
Judge Savard, however, forbids him to leave Quebec, asks him to deposit the sum of $150,000 in court as security in addition to third-party commitments of $50,000.
She specifies that if the Supreme Court refuses to hear his appeal or rejects it, he must immediately go to the penitentiary.