An Ontario judge has stayed first-degree murder charges against three men in an alleged “execution-style” killing after concluding that their Charter rights were violated at a Milton incarceration facility.

Superior Court Justice Clayton Conlan says in his ruling that Joseph Richard Whitlock, Kulvir Singh Bhatia and Karn Veer Sandhu were subjected to “torturous state actions” at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in December 2023.

The ruling says a crisis intervention team at the facility responded to an inmate’s assault on a correctional officer by conducting strip searches of all inmates in Unit 8, including the three accused men, and placing zip ties on their wrists.

It says the inmates were then seated in another area of the institution, facing the wall and wearing just underwear.

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