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“He did what he could in his mind,” Addelman said. “But he became intimidated and scared for himself and his family.”

While Mohsen never claimed to police to know who the shooter was, the star witness had identified the gunman as one of the accused, and it was on that evidence the police built their case against Mohamed and Borozan. For halting his testimony, the witness was sentenced to four years in custody.

Mohsen, during his testimony at the murder trial, lied on the stand with the intention of misleading the court, Crown prosecutor Mike Boyce said during Mohsen’s recent guilty plea to perjury. He also lied and said he was intoxicated when he first told police things he refused to repeat under oath.

Mohsen said he couldn’t identify the men in the plot even though he plainly saw some of their faces, knew them from the neighbourhood and high school, and was “close friends” with them.

Mohsen, though, too, feared for his life. His mother’s house was shot at nine times after the homicide. Police made multiple offers to keep him and his family safe. Mohsen declined all those offers.

Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois sentenced Mohsen to three years in custody for perjury.

“I apologize to the Crown and to the police,” he said at the end of the court hearing, but Bourgeois also suggested an apology was owed to the jury, who couldn’t do their job with a lying witness.

“This has got to stop,” she said. “We hear this way too often, unfortunately. You can’t just decide how you are going to deal with the fear on your own. That’s impossible; you know that now. You have to fear more what will happen if you lie than if you tell the truth. There’s a greater cause behind all this, and the entire justice system relies on witnesses and them telling the truth.”

syogaretnam@postmedia.com

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