(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham, accused of murdering his wife, has decided he would rather be deported to Sri Lanka than remain behind bars in Canada, the Montreal Gazette reported.
At his third detention review before the Immigration and Refugee Board on Thursday, he announced his intention to withdraw the appeal of his removal order, paving the way for a much faster repatriation.
But it is not clear whether he could be deported even before a judge hears the Quebec government’s appeal of the decision to stay the murder charges against him.
Thanabalasingham, 31, was set to stand trial in April for the 2012 death of his wife, Anuja Baskaran, when the charges against him were stayed because it had taken too long to bring him before a jury.
He became the first person accused of murder in Quebec to be freed following the Supreme Court Jordan decision, which requires that people accused of crimes be tried within 30 months of their arrest.
He had waited 57 months for his trial to begin. Thanabalasingham was released on April 7 after almost five years in jail, but was immediately picked up by the Canada Border Services Agency.
A week later, IRB member Stéphane Morin deemed he was a danger to the public and a flight risk and could not be released to the care of his brother and sister-in-law. They had both testified that, as far as they were concerned, Thanabalasingham had done nothing wrong, and were willing to put a $50,000 lien on their house as a guarantee.