WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
A man from London, Ontario, convicted of killing four members of a Muslim family and seriously injuring a fifth member in a motivated hate attack four years ago is appellant for three reasons, including that the judge should not have allowed the jury to consider his white nationalist manifesto.
A Windsor jury found Nathaniel Veltman guilty in November 2023 of four first -degree murder positions and a murder attempt. Three months later, the Judge of the Superior Court Renee Pomrange ruled that her actions were equivalent to a “textbook” of terrorism as defined by the Canadian law. He was sentenced in January 2024.
The news of the Friday of the appeal is produced on the fourth anniversary of the murder of Yummah Afzaal, 15, his parents, Madiha Salman, 44, engineer, and Salman AFZAAL, 46, physiotherapist, and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, teacher and artist. The youngest family member, a child, survived.
Veltman led his truck to the family while taking a night walk on June 6, 2021.
Appeal requested for 3 reasons
“I appreciate that the community was horrified by this crime and that the remaining members of the family were devastated by this crime. I respect that, and I feel very bad for the family and for the community,” Newman’s appeal lawyer, Stephen Whitzman, told CBC News.
“Mr. Veltman, of course, has the right to exercise his full legal rights, including his right to an appeal, and it is my work as his lawyer to help him do it, and I hope everyone understands that these two things can exist together.”
A judge in London, Ontario, ruled the actions of the man who ran for a Muslim family with his truck in 2021, killing four people, were a “example of a textbook of reason and intention terrorists.” Nathaniel Veltman was already sentenced to life imprisonment for killing four members of the Afzaal family.
The appeal is requested for three reasons, according to the judicial records obtained by CBC News:
- The judge made an error by admitting the ideological evidence, including the White Supreme Manifesto of Veltman, entitled “A White Awakening”, which established its political and racist views.
- The judge made an error by admitting Veltman’s statements to a police officer who was obtained through a “violation of the letter”, which means that he was not adequately warned of his rights.
- The judge made an error by rejecting the request to defense of a null trial due to what Veltman’s lawyer called “inflammatory language” during the final declaration of the crown, including references to the crime scene and the serious injuries suffered by the victims.
Veltman’s trial lasted 12 weeks. The jury heard evidence that he was motivated by extremist and Islamophobic opinions of the right, and described himself as a white nationalist. He grew up in a strict Christian home and fell into an online hate network during Covid-19 pandemic, according to the trial.
Veltman testified in his own defense and said he took magical fungi one day before the murder to escape the “hell” of his mind. The galvanized murder of London and the Canadian society to create laws and groups that would fight Islamophobia.
As it has done on each anniversary of the murder, the community met on Friday to reflect on the family, which became known as our London family and to recognize the impact of the tragedy.
