The jury trial of a man accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl in Burnaby in 2017 began Wednesday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Ibrahim Ali is charged with first-degree murder in the death of the girl. He entered a plea of not guilty to the crime in court Wednesday morning.
The B.C. Crown Prosecution Service informed CBC on Wednesday a publication ban had been placed on the girl’s name.
The girl’s body was found in a wooded corner of Burnaby’s Central Park on July 18, 2017, several hours after she went missing.
Ali was arrested over a year later, on Sept. 7, 2018.
Police have said Ali, who was 28 years old at the time of his arrest, had no previous criminal record and arrived in Canada as a refugee from Syria 17 months before his arrest. He has remained in custody since then.
When asked for his plea in front of a B.C. Supreme Court jury, Ibrahim Ali said three times through a Kurdish-speaking interpreter that he “did not” kill the 13-year-old girl.
FULL STORY: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ibrahim-ali-trial-1.6802907
