A former Canadian soldier accused of murdering a B.C. gangster in Southeast Asia is one step closer to extradition after a ruling from an Alberta judge.
Matthew Dupre was committed for extradition Friday after Court of King’s Bench Justice Denise Kiss found the Canadian government had successfully made the case to surrender him to Thailand for trial in the death of Jimi Singh Sandhu.
Sandhu, a member of the United Nations gang, was gunned down on the island of Phuket on Feb. 4, 2022, in what Thai authorities allege was a drug-related hit by Dupre and another Canadian man.
Dupre’s lawyers argued against extradition on the grounds he could be sentenced to death if convicted of Sandhu’s murder. But Kiss said judges in extradition hearings cannot concern themselves with the issue of potential punishment, saying extradition committal hearings are a “modest screening device.”
“I note that if he is convicted, the only sentence is death by lethal injection,” Kiss said. “This is simply not a factor I’m permitted to consider at this stage of the extradition proceedings.”
Dupre was previously a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Afghanistan before joining a private security firm deployed in high-risk areas including Iraq. He was arrested at his home in Sylvan Lake on Feb. 20 and remains in custody.
Sandhu was deported to India in 2016 for “serious criminality” and, according to Thai police, had amassed large sums of money and illegal drugs at the Phuket villa where he was gunned down.
Thai authorities believe Dupre and another man, Gene Karl Lahrkamp, travelled to Thailand to kill Sandhu. They claim to have evidence linking the two to the shooting, including immigration records, testimony from the clerk of their hotel, car rental records, and CCTV footage around the time of the shooting.
As part of the extradition proceedings, a Thai police official submitted a sworn statement claiming to have matched a distinctive tattoo on Dupre’s right arm to surveillance footage and witness testimony.
James Lockyer, Dupre’s lawyer, urged Kiss not to commit his client for extradition because she had not seen the CCTV footage allegedly obtained by Thai police.
But Kiss said extradition judges are bound by treaty, and only permitted to conduct only a “limited weighing” of the evidence against the accused. She said her role is to establish whether, at first glance, there is a case against Dupre, and whether on a balance of probabilities he is the person sought for extradition.
Kiss also said she cannot get bogged down in issues such as how Thai courts treat evidence.
“It is not for this country to assume that it alone knows how to arrive at a true verdict,” she said.
Dupre, who is in custody at the Red Deer Remand Centre, shifted uneasily around the video conferencing room as Kiss read her verdict, taking occasional deep breaths and turning his eyes to the ceiling of the green cell.
Dupre’s fate now lies with federal Justice Minister David Lametti, who makes the ultimate decision whether to surrender Canadian citizens to other countries. Canadian officials typically obtain assurances from jurisdictions with the death penalty that citizens will not be executed if surrendered for extradition.
Lahrkamp, who is also ex-military, died in a plane crash in Ontario earlier this year alongside a man linked to the Independent Soldiers gang.
