Two trials involving the disappearance of Elnaz Hajtamiri more than three years ago have gotten off to stumbling starts.
One trial is of Mohamad Lilo, Hajtamiri’s former boyfriend, who stands accused of murdering her, although her body has never been found and there is no concrete evidence of what happened to her after she was kidnaped in January 2022.
. . . no body found
The other trial is of Harshdeep Binner, 26, who is charged with assaulting Hajtamiri three weeks before her disappearance and hitting her over the head with a frying pan in what is believed to have been a failed kidnapping attempt.
Lilo’s trial kicked off April 28, with a pool of prospective jurors assembling in a courtroom in Barie, Ontario, for what was supposed to be jury selection. But Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst dismissed the pool, requiring the process to begin all over again at a later date.
The other trial began a month earlier in Newmarket, Ontario, and lasted two weeks before the presiding judge declared a mistrial when the defense complained that prosecutors had failed to notify them about evidence they were preparing to use in the trial, as required by Canadian (and American) law.
The mistrial means that this case will also have to start all over again.
One other man has so far been charged in the case. Riyasat Singh was charged along with Binner with aggravated assault for the attack on Hajtamiri. Singh pleaded guilty in 2022 and was quickly deported to India.
Binner and Singh were arrested in early 2022 in Edmonton, Alberta, and charged with stealing F-150 pickup trucks. Some news accounts have suggested that Lilo ran a gang stealing F-150s to be sold abroad and speculated that Lilo may have targeted Hajtamiri after their breakup because she knew what he was up to. But the trials have not reached the point of describing alleged motives.
A fourth man, Deshawn Davis, an African-Canadian, has been charged with kidnapping in Hajtamiri’s January 2022 abduction. He was arrested last year in California and faced trial in Florida on charges of another unrelated murder. He is still being held in the US, and it is not clear when he will be made available for trial in Ontario.
The main piece of evidence in the Binner trial, before the mistrial was declared, was a two hour video of a police interview of Hajtamiri just after she was assaulted in the garage of her apartment house in Richmond Hill, Ontario, an enclave of Iranians living in the Toronto area.
In the video, Hajtamiri, 37 at the time, told police she was with a friend on their way to shop, when she saw two men get out of a car in the garage. One man banged on her car window. At first, Hajtamiri said she thought the men had a question for her or needed help with directions.
. . . trial for assault . . . trial for assault
Hajtamiri said she noticed the men looked at her in a strange way. As the man continued to bang on her window, Hajtamiri said she tried to lock her car door and may have accidentally unlocked it.
She told police she was pulled out and thrown to the ground where she was hit while on her knees.
She said her friend was screaming while the second man stood outside the car, as Hajtamiri was being hit by the bigger man. “I couldn’t even move,” Hajtamiri told police.
Hajtamiri said her attackers noticed another man walking in the garage and they then took off.
Police suggested she leave the Toronto area out of concern her attackers might return. She then moved in with relatives in their house in Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay, far from Toronto.
Three weeks later she was kidnaped from the Wasaga Beach home and loaded into a stolen white Lexus SUV by a different group of kidnappers.
Binner is on trial for the aggravated assault of Hajtamiri and possession of a stolen vehicle used in the attack.
The prosecution says Binner attacked Hajtamiri and pulled a chunk of her hair from her head, saying his DNA was found at the scene including on a balaclava.
Hajtamiri came to Canada in 2018, a year after her husband, Farnam Shapourifar, died following a brief illness.
She came to Canada to rebuild her life, working as an administrator in the import/export business, and volunteering with charitable organizations.
In the weeks prior to the December 20, 2021, assault in the parking garage, the company from which she leased her vehicle found two tracking devices during an inspection. A third tracking device was later recovered by York Regional Police investigating the assault.
Seven other people have been implicated in the attempted kidnaping and the actual kidnaping.
• Harshpreet Sekhon, Jaspreet Singh, and Akash Rana have been charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence with regard to the failed kidnapping.
• A Canada-wide warrant is outstanding for Sukhpreet Singh, 22, for aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence with regard to the failed kidnapping in the garage. Those charged in connection with the abduction in Wasaga Beach:
• Krystal Lawrence arrested on March 16 and charged with kidnapping. Her charges were stayed by the Crown last year.
• Dominique Ewan was charged with kidnapping, fraud, and possession of property obtained by crime. Her charges were stayed by the courts in 2023.
• Adams Suleman Ankamah charged with kidnaping; possession of a firearm or ammunition contrary to a prohibition order; possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition; unauthorized possession of a firearm; careless storage of a firearm, weapon, prohibited device or ammunition; knowledge of unauthorized possession of a firearm; and possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime.
The failed kidnaping involved Indians while the successful kidnaping involved Blacks. Lilo was born in Ontario. The Iran Times has been unable to determine his ethnicity.
