REGINA -- Awet Mehari, who was convicted of a sexual assault from 2017, said he intends to appeal his conviction at the Supreme Court of Canada before turning himself into police on Monday.
Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Mehari, 31, who was convicted of sexual assault, on Friday.
According to Regina police, Mehari will serve his sentence in a closed-custody facility.
Mehari told CTV News that he still maintains his innocence.
“My case is a ‘he said/she said’, with a strong racial bias against me,” Mehari said. “My lawyer and I will be filing an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.”
In January 2019, Mehari was convicted of sexually assaulting Alexis Kolody, 19 at the time, at a party that took place in Sept. 2017.
Aaron Fox, Mehari’s lawyer, argued the initial trial judge applied an unfair level of scrutiny in assessing evidence.
Mehari appealed that conviction to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which delivered a split decision.
The split decision meant Mehari’s conviction was overturned and a new trial would be ordered. The Crown was free to appeal this choice at the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Supreme Court heard the Crown’s appeal on Dec. 5, 2020, and decided to overturn the appeal of his conviction, finding the first trial judge had not been unfair to Mehari in his initial trial.
Mehari’s case was referred back to the Court of Appeal in Saskatchewan, where his appeal was ultimately dismissed on Friday.
