A judge has given lawyers representing former Montreal politician Frank Zampino until Thursday to say whether they’re satisfied with documents and audiotapes that were handed over by the Crown during the weekend concerning police wiretaps that targeted the former No. 2 man at city hall.
Zampino is one of seven men on trial on fraud charges relating to the 2007 sale of the city-owned Faubourg Contrecoeur to a construction company for residential development.
His lawyer, Isabel Schurman, told Quebec Court judge Yvan Poulin on Monday that she requires more time to examine the material that was disclosed by the prosecution.
The court is dealing with a motion filed by Schurman. It concerns the disclosure of evidence relating to a wiretap that targeted some of the people accused in the Contrecoeur case but was conducted in 2015 as part of a separate police investigation into the city’s now-cancelled $356-million water-management contract.
Investigators who were not supposed to be able to listen in when the accused were speaking to their lawyers somehow had access to a handful of intercepted conversations involving lawyers. It’s unclear whether they listened, however.
When they return to court on Thursday, Poulin could rule on the motion and clear the way for the trial to hear from its first witness since it began a year ago.
