An appeals court has affirmed the conviction of a Minnesota man for assisting the suicide of a British man, but reversed his conviction for attempting to assist the 2008 suicide of Carleton University student Nadia Kajouji.

The latest decision in the case, which has been the subject of a long legal fight about Minnesota's laws against assisting suicides, illustrates the shortcomings of the law, Kajouji's brother told Radio-Canada.

"Certain laws take forever to change," Marc Kajouji said. "But as a society we can help the people who are reaching out — or not reaching out and need help in order to not have other families go through this."

He began volunteering for Your Life Counts, an organization that offers support to those who may have thoughts of suicide, after his sister's death.

'Laws need to adapt'

William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse, was sentenced to a year in jail in 2011 for encouraging suicide in two cases.

The Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the original convictions last year, declaring that a state law banning someone from "encouraging" or "advising" suicide was unconstitutional. The court upheld part of the law making it a crime to "assist" in a suicide.

On Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled there was sufficient evidence to convict Melchert-Dinkel for assisting the 2005 suicide of Mark Drybrough, of Coventry, England.

However, it said there wasn't enough to convict him of the lesser offense of attempting to assist the suicide of Nadia Kajouji, of Brampton, Ont.

Carleton University student Nadia Kajouji was found dead in 2008. (Family of Nadia Kajouji) Authorities have said that Melchert-Dinkel was obsessed with suicide and hanging, and that he sought out potential victims online, posing as a female nurse and feigning compassion.

The court ruled Melchert-Dinkel gave Drybrough detailed instructions on how to hang himself, but didn't give specific instructions to Kajouji, who jumped off a bridge in Ottawa.

Marc Kajouji said the "laws need to adapt" to the modern world.

"When the laws were written for encouraging suicide there was no such thing as internet or smartphones or cyberbullying or all that other stuff," he said. "Everything has been going back and forth with appeals and this and that. It's really hard to build a case when the rules and laws are so vague in this time of application."