After deliberating for almost a week, a jury has declared five of the six men arrested after the sword killing of a man at the Midway Family Fun Park in Sept. 2003 not guilty.
The jury found the sixth man, Wahab Dadshani, who admitted to attacking 26-year-old Charbel Chaar with a sword, guilty of manslaughter.
Tawab Dadshani, 33, Tarik Echrif, 28, Mohamed Abed, 25, Shaun Hulbert, 25, and Fahim Payman, 30, all pleaded not guilty to the charge that they planned to murder Chaar in during the incident that started with gunfire at the east-end amusement park.
Dadshani, who represented himself, had claimed that he acted in self-defence when he inflicted the wounds that eventually lead to Chaar’s death.
Dadshani will remain in police custody while he awaits sentencing. A manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The jury delivered its verdict in a packed Courtroom 37 that consisted of a heavy police presence around the Ottawa courthouse yesterday.
Following the sentencing, the five accused celebrated with friends and family outside the courthouse, while friends of Chaar, wearing white shirts with his image on it, looked on.
“Finally it’s been read out loud, not guilty, completely innocent,” said Payman. “It’s six years of my life basically gone. Now I have to make up for it.”
After six years, Hulbert said he was so happy to finally be free.
His sister, Kimberly Hulbert, said it been a long six years, but the last week has been especially hard.
“It’s the scariest time of my life,” she said. “We didn’t know what could happen.”
