By Curtis Galbraith

Court update: Trials set in two cases, Haliburton building shooting back in court

Mar 12, 2019 | 1:08 PM

Alberta Justice says trial dates have been set for a Grande Prairie man facing child luring and child pornography charges.
 
The man, who cannot be named because of a publication ban on the identity of the accused and the victims, will stand trial February 24 to 28, 2020. He is facing eight counts in total.
 
He was arrested in January of 2018 as part of an investigation by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit.
 
ALERT says in a release it believes someone was posing as a teenage girl online an attempt to lure teenage boys into sharing explicit videos and photos and trying to set up meetings with them.
 
ALERT said at the time there may be victims on northern Alberta and BC, the Northwest Territories, and Australia.
 
  
Trial set in drug bust
 
Alberta Justice says two men charged in 2018 Grande Prairie drug bust are going to trial.
 
Bile Hassan and Anas Mujber are facing a combined 35 charges, possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of stolen property and careless use or storage of a firearm among them.
 
They were charged after a bust in February 2018 where methamphetamine, cocaine, a handgun, ammunition, body armour, and close to $2500 cash were seized at a Grande Prairie home.
 
The trial will be held on October 22 and 23, 2019.
 
 
Haliburton shooting trial will go ahead says judge
 
A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has told the accused in the 2015 shooting at the Haliburton building in Clairmont his October trial will go ahead even if he does not have a new lawyer by then.
 
Panagiotis Michalakakos appeared by phone in court Monday as he is looking for new counsel, his third lawyer change since being arrested.
 
Michalakakos told the court he needed someone “to look into this” who would have sympathy for him and for what happened.
 
The judge told him it looked like he had already had very good counsel.
 
Michalakakos had trial dates set for March of last year but did not show up in court and an arrest warrant was issued. He appeared by phone Monday because he is in custody and closed-circuit television was not available.
 
He was arrested after shots were fired at the building the evening of March 31, 2015.
 
No one was hurt, but several buildings were placed on lockdown. Two employees hid inside until the situation ended.
 
His trial is set for October 7 to 18, 2019.