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“It would not be in the interests of justice to re-incarcerate (Suter) at this time — it would cause him undue hardship and serve no useful purpose,” the decision reads.

That part of the court’s reasons was the hardest to comprehend for Mounsef’s mother, Sage Morin, who said the ruling left her feeling like she’d been kicked in the stomach.

“That was ultimately the gagger, really. It fails to take into account the undue hardship our family has had to bear, now and for the rest of our lives,” Morin said Friday.

Suter served more than 10 months in jail before being released to await the outcome of the appeal.

Suter’s lawyer Dino Bottos said Friday that the court’s decision is a relief after the “hell” Suter and his wife have been through for the past five years.

“Mr. Suter himself is very relieved and grateful, and he also wanted to extend, yet again, his sincere apology to the Mounsef family for having caused the death of Geo.”

Bottos said the decision is also meaningful because of a new law it has created related to mitigating factors during sentencing, which was the basis of his appeal.

The court considered a number of factors that it found removed Suter’s case from the “normal range” of sentencing for this type of crime, including that he was not impaired, that he refused to provide a breath sample to police because of bad legal advice, and that he was kidnapped by vigilantes who cut off his thumb.

With files from Paula Simons

pparsons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/paigeeparsons