A judge has denied bail for a Toronto neurosurgeon accused of killing his physician wife.
Dr. Mohammed Shamji is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Dr. Elana Fric-Shamji. Her body was found inside a suitcase on the side of a road in Kleinburg, Ont., north of Toronto, on Dec. 1, 2016.
An autopsy found that the 40-year-old mother of three young children had died of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Investigators believe she was killed inside the family home.
The couple’s children are currently being cared for by their maternal grandparents.
A bail request to allow Shamji to live in the community while awaiting his murder trial was denied by the judge on Wednesday. The details of that decision are being protected by a publication ban.
Shamji, who has been in jail since his Dec. 2, 2016 arrest, remained silent as the judge read the decision.
Later in the day, Shamji’s lawyer, Liam O’Connor, said that the decision came as a surprise.
“I can tell you from the day this charge was laid, I’ve been inundated with support for the doctor from friends, from family, from patients, from people who didn’t know him -- and it continues to come in,” O’Connor told reporters outside a downtown Toronto courthouse.
“This is a tragedy and there’s three children suffering… But I haven’t seen a story where there wasn’t a second side to a story, and that story will be told, I assure you.”
If convicted, Shamji faces a possible life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. A preliminary inquiry starts next week and is expected to last for three months.
