To avoid spending four years in prison, former construction contractor Tony Accurso will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to look into his case.
Last week, the Quebec Court of Appeal refused to overturn his conviction, rejecting both the appeal of his guilty verdict and his prison sentence, imposed following his trial for fraud and corruption. .
Thus, the Court of Appeal had summoned Mr. Accurso to surrender to the prison authorities by Wednesday at the latest.
Given this very close deadline, he will also ask to be released pending further legal proceedings, confirmed the prosecutor of the Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions (DPCP), Me Magalie Cimon. He will present this request to the Court of Appeal on Friday.
In 2018, a jury found Tony Accurso guilty of having participated in a system of corruption and collusion which raged in Laval under the reign of ex-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, between 1996 and 2010.
The system put in place by the mayor ensured that the City of Laval awarded public contracts to companies that offered it a 2% rebate — or to its associates. Two companies of Tony Accurso, Construction Louisbourg and Simard-Beaudry, obtained such contracts, it is written in the decision of the Court of Appeal.
Mr. Accurso maintained that he was unaware of his companies’ involvement in the scheme since he was not involved in day-to-day operations. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On appeal, he argued in particular that the abortion of his first trial, in 2017, and the police investigation into it, had harmed him because the situation had greatly benefited the Crown.
While the Court of Appeal was critical of certain actions of state officials, it ruled that this did not render his second trial unfair.