After the latest guilty plea in the MUHC fraud case, the last of the accused is continuing his legal fight to prove his innocence.
The case of Pierre Duhaime was back in court, a few days after his co-accused Yannai Elbaz pleaded guilty to accepting $10 million in bribes in return for awarding the superhospital contract to the group led by SNC Lavalin.
Duhaime's lawyers announced that they were dropping their request to stay court proceedings against their client now that two crown witnesses were no longer testifying - Duhaime's former assistant and Gilles Laramée, the ex-CFO for SNC Lavalin.
Duhaime's trial is expected to last as long as four months with about nine weeks for the crown's case alone that includes electronic evidence. The trial was supposed to begin at the beginning of January but will now start a month later.
The prosecutor said they were counting on admissions to shorten any possible testimony by Duhaime and on focusing on witnesses who'll testify about Duhaime's alleged involvement.
Duhaime was not present in court and did not need to be at this stage.