Afshin Ighani, 52, is charged with resisting arrest and driving while prohibited.
A notorious South Okanagan criminal is back behind bars and facing new criminal charges.
Afshin Maleki Ighani was taken to the Okanagan Correctional Center on February 15 for his first court appearance on charges of willful resisting or obstructing a police officer and prohibited driving for an incident that occurred on November 30 in Okanagan Falls. He appeared in Penticton Provincial Court via video from. 2023.
He is back in court to consult with his attorney on February 28th.
He last appeared in court in 2020, when he was sentenced for five assault charges related to two separate assaults at the Okanagan Correctional Center (OCC) to which he had previously pleaded guilty.
The 52-year-old had been in prison since April 22, 2017.
In 2017, Ighani stabbed Peter Beckett, who was in prison in 2010 for the first-degree murder of his wife, convicted child molester David McHale, according to court documents.
The other charge relates to an assault in 2018 that left a female OCC officer with “severe bruising” while attempting to return her to her cell.
Mr. Ighani gained notoriety in 2017 when he was arrested in a manhunt across Canada on suspicion of kidnapping. He was charged with 10 counts of kidnapping and weapons offenses in connection with the incidents in Okanagan Falls and Princeton, and was ultimately arrested.
As the crime continued, Ighani was suspected of shooting and killing Thomas Zajko, leading to a large police presence in the quiet residential area of Oliver, where Ighani was believed to have been staying in a camping trailer. There is.
While police searched for him, he was later identified as a material witness and is accused of kidnapping two people who agreed to drive them from Okanagan Falls to the Lower Mainland for $400. Along the way, he took control of his vehicle and stopped it on a logging road between Princeton and Manning Park.
The cars stopped about 6 kilometers away along the road, and one of them was forced to get out of the car and start digging.
Police said at the time that all three men knew each other.
He was acquitted of all charges after defense attorney Paul McMurray convinced the judge that there was sufficient doubt about the testimony of two key witnesses, one of whom fled to the United States after testifying. It became.
Attempted murder and weapons charges against Igani in connection with Zaziko's shooting were suspended when Zaziko, a key witness, died several months later of unrelated causes.
Read more: Famous criminal released from prison
