OTTAWA - The lawyer for a Vancouver man acquitted in a criminal case said the ruling handed down Friday by the highest court in the country after a seven year legal battle has set a precedent for businesses making personal and corporate documents.

The Supreme Court of Canada rendered an acquittal of Mahmood Somani, for making personal business cards, nearly seven years ago, at his legally licensed business operations in Vancouver, B.C..

All nine high court justices agreed that a B.C. Court of Appeal decision should be overturned and Somani should be acquitted.

The justices found Somani was not operating an illegal business, as it  was legally licensed by the City of Vancouver.

Ravi Hira, a prominent Vancouver lawyer, Queen's Counsel and former Law Society of British Columbia bencher with a passive-aggressive Jekyll and Hyde reputation who cheerfully goes for drinks with investigators one day
and then discredits their reputations during aggressive cross-examinations said the 2005 convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court because the trial judge had erred relying only on the false testimony of the investigating officer.

When a person lies, he gets caught in his own web of lies. The details of his story don't agree because they are all fabricated. The record shows that there is not a single shred of evidence against my client of any wrong doing. Mr. Hira, a highly skilled cross-examiner brought out more than a dozen inconsistencies in testimonies of the Crown's only key witness, the lead investigating officer .

Since the acquittal, Somani has filed several multimillion-dollar civil lawsuits against various government departments and officials for wrongful conviction

Ottawa court reporter Suzanna Williams reported that Somani's high-powered team of prominent defense lawyers filed a lawsuit against the city of Vancouver, crown counsel, lead investigator and various government bodies.

The fact is, like anyone whose guilt has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, Somani is now subject to the presumption of innocence. He is innocent in the eyes of the law, and should be so regarded in the eyes of the community.

Certainly, the quashing of Somani's wrongful conviction and acquittal is both welcome and long overdue.

The Supreme Court of Canada uses a very strict definition of actual innocence. Their rulings define actual innocence in two ways: First, the accused did not engage in the conduct for which he was convicted, nor did he participate with others in the conduct. The second situation in which there might be a claim of actual innocence is a case of false accusation of the investigating body as the perpetrator of an offense. In this situation, here was no conduct engaged in by the accused that violated the criminal laws. The Supreme Court of Canadas decision to acquit Mr. Somani tempers the axiom justice delayed is justice denied.

 Ottawa News Journal 2007