Lawyers suggest witness in Mississauga shooting was involved in murder

Lawyers for three men charged in connection with a fatal shooting at a family-owned restaurant in Mississauga attempted to poke holes in the story told by the Crown's star witness Friday— and even suggested the man was heavily involved in the murder itself.

The ongoing trial in Superior Court in Brampton has put the men in front of a jury on charges of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder for the shooting at the Chicken Land restaurant in the early evening of May 29, 2021, which killed 25-year-old Naim Akl and injured four others.

On Friday, defence lawyers cross-examined Crown witness Mikail Aras — who implicated the three accused in previous testimony.

"You were at the centre of this murder and that is why you have to be continuously lying," lawyer Adam Newman said in front of the 14-member jury.

Akl was killed when a gunman entered his family's restaurant and shot him, along with his parents, brother and a family friend. His 13-year-old sister was shot at, but was unharmed. The others survived.

Anand Nath, Suliman Raza and Niqash Abbasi all face the same charges. The Crown has alleged that Nath was the sole shooter, Raza drove the getaway vehicle and Abbasi planned the attack and carried out the orders.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

The Crown's central argument is that Akl had a falling out with the men while working at TryALinc, an Amazon warehouse re-sell business, run by Abbasi in Mississauga. They allege Akl was planning to tell police about the men's alleged ties to ISIS.

Naim Akl, 25, was killed in the shooting at Chicken Land. (Facebook/Canadian Druze Society)

Defence focuses on inconsistencies

Aras testified on Tuesday that Nath had been staying with him for more than a week before the shooting. On the day of the shooting, he said he was with him and Raza and they told him to stay at the warehouse because they lost the key.

The day after, Aras testified that Nath told him he had done something "really bad" but did not speak about the shooting until he confessed to the alleged murder plot on May 31, 2021 at the warehouse — where the other two accused were also present.

Aras testified he spent days "researching" the shooting before deciding to tell police on June 3 that the accused men had confessed the murder plot to him, after making him pledge allegiance to ISIS.

But the defence lawyers attempted to cast doubt on that story by pointing out inconsistencies in his original statement to police and testimony.

Newman, who represents Abbasi, questioned Aras about what he knew of the shooting in the days before he went to the police, when the alleged gunman in the case was staying with him.

"If you had [knowledge of the shooting] on the 30th and then let the person sleep in your house, then you are letting someone you believe is a murderer sleep at your house," Newman said.

Crown prosecutor allege Nath (left), from Mississauga, carried out the shooting, while Raza (centre), also from Mississauga, was the alleged getaway driver. Abbasi (right), from Brampton, was the alleged organizer, according to the Crown. (Peel Regional Police )

Newman also read Aras's police statement from three years ago out loud in court, in which the witness told police Nath told him about the shooting first on May 30 at the office, then provided more details at his house, and "clarification" of the murder plot on May 31 — contradicting his testimony.

"There is so much information I had to provide in that one day, I was overwhelmed," Aras said when confronted with the differing accounts.

Aras' extensive criminal history from 2008 to 2015 presented in court, which includes several prohibition violations for possessing firearms. Newman used this to suggest Aras supplied the gun used in the 2021 shooting, but he provided no evidence.

Defence casts doubt on witness' alibi

Aras told the court Tuesday he was with Nath and Raza throughout the afternoon and night of the attack, but said he was unaware of a plan to attack the Akl family. He told court he waited for the two men at their TryALinc warehouse when Nath and Raza told him they were going to make a copy of the lost key.

Newman exhibited a video of Nath taking a few seconds to open that door that day, implying he used a key, and suggested Aras was lying about waiting there while they made a key. Instead, Newman suggested Aras was "keeping the area" to open the door for the accused men when they return from the attack.

He said Aras "won't admit it" because that would discredit "your whole preposterous story that you were sitting there waiting for a key."

Lawyer Elliott Willschick, who is representing Raza, said since Aras did not work at the warehouse, he was "useless to watch" their workspace.

Phone records don't match witness testimony: Defence 

A week before the attack, Aras testified he was asked by Abbasi to shelter Nath because he was homeless. Aras said he hadn't heard from Abbasi for a year and hadn't spoken to him over the phone on the night of the shooting at all.

He testified he overheard a speaker phone call between the accused men before the shooting where Abbasi asked Nath whether he was "ready" and Nath said he was ready "to do it for Allah."

But, according to Abbasi's phone records exhibited in court, there are no phone records of that call, Newman pointed out.

The shooting at Chicken Land, on Glen Erin Drive and the Collegeway in Mississauga, on May 29, 2021, left Naim Akl, 25, dead. Akl's mother, father and brother, as well as a family friend were also shot. (Vedran Lesic/CBC)

Aras called Abbasi three times on the night of the shooting, according to the records. Newman said his client's phone records also don't show any call to Aras a week or two before the shooting to ask him to shelter Nath.

Aras had testified that the alleged getaway driver, Raza, called him after the shooting to ask him to open the warehouse's garage. But according to Raza's phone records exhibited in court, there is no record of that call either.

Instead, Newman suggested Raza sent "coded" text messages to Aras, which he exhibited in court.

After the shooting, Raza sent a Signal message to Aras and asked "hope family is well," and Aras responded with "can't complain brother they went back home."

According to Aras' testimony, he spent the entire day of the shooting with Nath and some four hours with Raza. Newman says it makes "no sense" for someone to ask about the family over text after spending a whole day with them and that Aras opened the door two minutes after receiving that text to let Raza and Nath back into the warehouse, as shown in a video exhibit.

"I'm going to suggest that was the code for taking the [Akl] family out," Newman said.

Aras said text messages "can be fabricated." He said the phone number involved in those conversations wasn't his, but it was established later the number did in fact belong to him. Arasa said Newman's assertions were "rubbish."

Defence called witness a 'terrorist' 

Aras testified he was asked to pledge allegiance at the TryALinc warehouse two days after the shooting, with all three accused men present in Abbasi's office.

Before that pledge, Aras testified 10-12 "allegiance people" were at the warehouse — none of them heard the confession, he told court.

Last week, two men who were present at the warehouse that day — Noah Rabbani and Ammar Hashmi — testified they did not see anyone pledging allegiance to ISIS, any mention of ISIS, a weapon, or celebration of the attack.

During his cross-examination, Willschick, Raza's lawyer, called Aras a "terrorist" who had shown interest in joining ISIS before, suggesting he has evidence of Aras' sister calling police on after learning of his plans to travel to Turkey and cross the border to join the militant organization.

Unclear where Aras saw the murder weapon 

During a heated cross examination, Kendra Stanyon, Nath's lawyer, questioned Aras about inconsistencies in where he's said he saw the murder weapon.

Aras told police he saw the murder weapon during a car ride back to his house from the warehouse on May 31. During his court testimony, he said Raza showed him the gun in the warehouse — a detail he did not provide to the police, Stanyon said.

Aras had also told the police Nath told him he planned to "sell it (the gun)," but in his testimony he said Nath told him he had buried it in a park.

Police haven't found a murder weapon, Stanyon told the jury.

Aras said "I'm not sure" when asked why his story keeps changing.

"You're not sure about a lot of things," Stanyon said. "You're a liar."

"You're defending liars," Aras said.

Stanyon says Nath went to Montreal after the shooting at Chicken Land because he was afraid he'll be the next target of the group.

Trial resumes Monday.