Lawyers for alleged Quebec City mosque gunman Alexandre Bissonnette are asking the Quebec Superior Court to reverse a judge’s decision to make public information contained in police warrants.
A consortium of seven media outlets had asked the court to lift the seals on 10 search warrants issued between Jan. 30 and Feb. 6.
A Quebec Court judge allowed their disclosure to the media in a recent decision, but they remained under seal temporarily to allow for a possible appeal of the ruling.
In a motion filed Monday and made available Tuesday, Bissonnette’s lawyers, Charles-Olivier Gosselin and Jean-Claude Gingras, argue Judge Alain Morand committed an error in a decision they described as “unreasonable.”
Bissonnette, 27, is charged with the premeditated murder of six men at the Grand Mosque in Quebec City on Jan. 29. He is also charged with six other counts of attempted murder.
Judge Morand said he allowed the disclosure of the material because it was already in the public domain.
But Bissonnette’s lawyers said he has erred on this point, “in particular because this information does not come from witnesses who have already given their version to journalists.”
Bissonnette’s parents never granted an interview.
“The publication of this information would cause real, serious, significant and irreparable harm to the fairness of the trial,” Bissonnette’s lawyers said in their motion. “The detrimental effects are greater than the beneficial effects on the right to freedom of expression and the public’s right to information.”
The court will consider the issue on Friday.