By Canadian Press

Bissonnette to appeal sentence for murders in Quebec City mosque

Mar 8, 2019 | 3:53 PM

QUEBEC — The gunman who killed six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque is appealing his sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years.

Lawyers for Alexandre Bissonnette filed the motion today with the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Bissonnette, 29, was sentenced Feb. 8 for his Jan. 29, 2017 attack on the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre.

It was the harshest prison sentence ever in Quebec and one of the longest in Canada, which since a 2011 Criminal Code reform has allowed consecutive life sentences for multiple murders.

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But it was well under the six consecutive life sentences  — 150 years before being eligible for parole — sought by the Crown.

The six life sentences were automatic after Bissonnette pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, but the defence had asked that they be served concurrently, meaning he would have been eligible for parole in 25 years.

The Canadian Press