Ontario's top court says Alek Minassian has abandoned his appeal of convictions tied to the 2018 Toronto van attack that left 10 people dead.
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Alek Minassian, convicted for a deadly van attack in Toronto in 2018, is no longer challenging his convictions.
Ontario's top court says Minassian has abandoned the appeal of his convictions on 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Minassian filed a notice of appeal in July 2022, about a month after he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He was also sentenced to 20 years for 15 counts of attempted murder, to be served concurrently.
The attack occurred on April 23, 2018, when Minassian drove a rented van down a crowded sidewalk, killing eight women and two men.
The court record described that Minassian admitted at trial that he planned and executed the attack, but argued he should be found not criminally responsible due to his autism spectrum disorder.
Prosecutors argued that Minassian is a mass killer who knew right from wrong and happens to also have autism.
The sentencing judge, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, rejected the defence argument that Minassian never developed empathy because of his autism and was unable to make rational decisions.
The 10 people killed in the rampage were identified as Ji Hun Kim, 22; So He Chung, 22; Anne Marie D’Amico, 30; Andrea Bradden, 33; Chul Min “Eddie” Kang, 45; Renuka Amarasingha, 45; Dorothy Sewell, 80; Geraldine Brady, 83; Munir Najjar, 85; and Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Forsyth, 94.
A victim, Amaresh Tesfamariam, died in 2021 from injuries sustained in the attack.
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