A Burnaby murder trial that has been plagued with delays has been adjourned once again.
Ibrahim Ali is accused of first-degree murder in the death of a Burnaby teen in 2017. He is now standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge on the first day of the trial Wednesday, and the Crown was expected to make its opening statement today (April 6), but Ali was not in court.
“It’s the nature of these sorts of proceedings that things come up that are unpredictable and require a matter to be addressed," Justice Lance Bernard told the jury. "Perhaps it’s partly to do with how many people are involved in these proceedings that it becomes more and more challenging to get everybody together at the same time, in the same room.”
Bernard said the trial couldn't proceed in Ali's absence and sent the jury home until Tuesday.
The victim in the case can't be identified because of a publication ban.
Ali's trial began Wednesday, April 5.
It was originally set for September 2020, but jury selection was cancelled a month before it was scheduled to begin, and the court was told the trial wouldn’t start until September 2021.
Since then, pre-trial applications pushed that start date back four more times, to Jan. 10, 2022, Sept. 19, 2022, Jan. 16, 2023 and finally to this week.
One juror was excused at the beginning of the proceedings Wednesday, and the trial is continuing with a 14-member jury and one alternate.
