This is incident KL16010348,
the death investigation of
Soleiman Faqiri.
This is a video of unit 8
segregation at the Central East
Correctional Centre in Lindsay.
My family's been waiting for
answers for the last
year and a half.
Why did my brother get
killed under government care?
Why did he have fifty
bruises on his body?
Why was both his
hands and his legs tied?
-[ Habiba ] A few months ago
Yusuf Faqiri reached out to me
about his 30 year old brother
who had died inside this Ontario
jail under
suspicious circumstances.
I need The Fifth
Estate to help us.
I want to know what
happened to my brother.
Please help us.
-[ Habiba ] I decided to
meet Yusuf in person.
How are you feeling?
We're still in pain.
Still suffering.
We're still
looking to find closure.
Why was he killed?
He left our family as a healthy
man and he was given to us in a
body bag.
-[ Habiba ] So you want to
know what happened in that cell?
Yeah.
He did not just
roll over and die.
-[ Habiba ] Soleiman was
a straight-a student,
captain of his high school rugby
team who would toy with the idea
of becoming a
professional athlete.
He then began studying
engineering at the
University of Waterloo.
That's when he was
diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Then his family watched as
Soleiman's world quickly
began to unravel.
Ali.
And this is Sam.
-[ Habiba ] Hi Sam.
Nice to meet you guys.
Yusuf invites me to their
home, to meet his brothers.
So Sam is the third of
five, Ali is the youngest.
What do you remember
the most about him?
Ah, his smile.
I'd say he loved me the
most out of all the brothers.
Haha, that's funny!
-[ Habiba ] We go inside
for a cup of Persian tea.
But genuinely just a good heart,
always trying to do the best
when he could, but
unfortunately it's,
um, mental illness has a way
of taking a toll on people.
-[ Habiba ] How did his
schizophrenia affect him
day to day?
Lack of sleep I'd say was the
biggest issue for Soleiman.
-[ Habiba ] How
did that play out?
Well there's times where he
wouldn't have slept for like
maybe 3, 4 days.
He'd be uncomfortable.
It'd be difficult for him
because he tried to go to sleep,
he just wouldn't be able to.
-[ Habiba ] It
must be debilitating.
Yeah, it was debilitating.
You know, he wanted to have a
life as close as to what he
could you know in
terms of normalcy.
Whenever he took this medication
the side effects are unreal with
these pills.
They'll make him hungry,
they'll make him super sleepy,
they'll make him restless.
Restless you know what I mean?
-[ Habiba ] No doubt some
days were worse than others.
Like this one.
This video was filmed at the
local gym where he usually
worked out.
But things weren't
always this bleak.
When Soleiman moved from
Afghanistan to Canada as a
child, life seemed promising.
-[ Habiba ] Do you remember
when you guys came to Canada?
Yes, I do.
-[ Habiba ] How old were
you and how old was he?
Soleiman was 8 and I was 10.
-[ Habiba ] What was
it like for you guys?
It was difficult at
first because you know,
there's a language barrier.
He picked up
English faster than me.
-[ Habiba ] Over the years
Soleiman had several run-ins
with the law.
Usually he was
taken to a hospital;
treated and discharged.
However in December 2016,
when he allegedly attacked his
neighbour, this time instead
of a hospital he was taken
to a jail cell.
What exactly happened to
Soleiman in those 11 days
that followed?
Our investigation begins here.
We obtain nearly two thousand
pages of documents, police
reports, forensic records,
including hundreds of crime
scene photos.
The police investigation
notes say Soleiman was being
aggressive, assaulting guards
and after being restrained,
he died.
The autopsy report
concluded the cause of
death was "unascertained."
In other words, not known.
That's what the family was told.
With no cause of death, the
investigation was closed.
We wonder if clues might be
buried in the reams of medical
records and documents.
We have here the
various police reports.
Yes.
-[ Habiba ] So we enlisted
the help of a leading forensic
pathologist, Dr. John Butt.
And these would be
the autopsy photos.
Yeah okay.
These are the scene...
That's right.
These are the scene photographs?
Right.
-[ Habiba ] He agrees to review
them for us and see whether,
based on the evidence,
he can determine an
actual cause of death.
Meanwhile we set out to
talk to potential witnesses.
We reach out to the guards.
Many of them on duty
that day were suspended.
None of them respond
to our request to talk.
How about inmates?
What did they see?
In the police notes we
obtained was this name.
Anthony Ouellette.
-[ Habiba ] Hi Anthony.
I'm Habiba.
Hi, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
-[ Habiba ] He was in the
cell next to Soleiman.
I'm hoping you can tell me
a little bit about what
was he like?
The first time I met him was
the day after he arrived,
because he kept the whole range
up all night because he was
banging his, you
know, he was panicking,
where he was like,
looked very agitated.
So, I couldn't really
understand what he was saying.
-[ Habiba ] What was he doing?
Walking around.
Like, I looked right in his cell
when I went there and he was
just walking
around his cell, naked.
I just said, "Are you okay?
"Do you need help?"
And he kept saying,
"Yeah, help, help, help".
Like, repeating it, you know.
He didn't eat.
He wouldn't come near his
door when the guards tried
to feed him.
He was um, chanting "Oh
Canada", for some reason.
Over and over and over.
That's what we all remember.
This was an individual that,
not only suffered from mental
illness, I believe shouldn't
have been in jail in the
first place.
All the correctional officers
that were on the floor at that
time were arguing with the
doctor to get him to a hospital.
And, he said, I heard it
right directly out of his mouth.
He doesn't meet the criteria
to be sanctioned to a hospital.
-[ Habiba ]
Instead of a hospital,
Soleiman was moved to another
segregation unit where things
would quickly escalate.
-Ambulance, what
is your emergency?
-I'm a nurse at Central
East Correctional Centre.
We have an inmate
with vital signs absent.
-Okay and do you
know what happened?
-I'm not sure I just
arrived on scene,
CPR, they were doing
compressions as I was leaving.
In here, just get you to sit
over there in the purple seat.
-[ Habiba ] This is the police
interview with the paramedic
who was the first to
arrive on the scene.
-[ Habiba ] He told the
investigators when he tried to
find out how Soleiman had
died the story kept changing.
Something that left
him feeling uneasy.
-[ Habiba ] When we come back,
we meet a man whose testimony
just might crack open the case.
The last thing I want
is my face on the news.
There are certain rules you
follow in jail and snitching
isn't one of them, right?
My family has been waiting
for answers for the last
year and a half.
Answers as to what
happened to our loved one.
How my brother, Soleiman Faqiri,
a man who suffered from severe
mental illness, schizophrenia,
was killed under
government care.
-[ Habiba ] What continues to
nag Yusuf is that his brother's
death was deemed
"unascertained".
Even when there were dozens
of bruises all over his body,
and a detailed autopsy,
still no medical cause of death.
How is that possible?
So this
is where it says,
"unascertained."
We had shared the records
and the autopsy reports with
forensic pathologist Dr. John
Butt to get a second opinion.
Now he's ready to
give us his findings.
So looking
at this evidence,
can you determine
a cause of death?
In my opinion, I would bring
this death more to the area of a
restraint related death,
associated with agitation of the
individual, in a situation
that is commonly called
excited delirium.
-[ Habiba ] Is excited delirium
a scientific cause of death?
Can it be?
Yes.
-[ Habiba ] You would put
that on a death certificate?
Yeah, I would, in this case.
-[ Habiba ] Dr. Butt points to
key injuries on Soleiman's body
including deep bruising
that indicate where there was
pressure on his neck.
-[ Habiba ] What
could have that been?
Could have been
hands on the neck.
Could have been an
arm around the neck.
Could have been a
foot on the neck.
-[ Habiba ] What I hear you
saying is that he died because
he couldn't breathe anymore?
Yes.
-[ Habiba ] But were
there any eye-witnesses?
According to the police notes,
John Thibeault was in the cell
opposite to
Soleiman when he died.
The police had suspected he
may have seen what happened.
But he refused to talk to them.
He's out of jail now and
agrees to meet with me.
Can you tell
me what you saw?
I seen one of the
guards say something,
whisper into his ear.
I don't know what he said.
I couldn't hear it but I
know that it agitated him.
And he started resisting going
to the cell and when he did that
one of the guards sprayed
pepper spray in his face.
-[ Habiba ] And you
could see all that?
Yeah.
So they got him into the
cell and they started beating,
right away the female guard hops
up onto the bunk the bed 'cause
it's higher up because the four
guards that were directly on
him, each one of those
guards is at least over 250,
260 pounds.
This corner of
the bed right here...
that's where they put his head
when they were kicking his head
off the corner, that
corner right there of the bunk.
It's horrible.
Soleiman was able to get up
stand straight up with all that
weight on his back, close to a
thousand pounds at least on his
back trying to hold him down
punching him kicking him beating
him just whatever
shots they could get in.
And every time he got up the
only place he had to run was the
back of his cell.
And I seen him run into
the wall two or three times.
This went on over 10 minutes
before they called the
code blue finally.
-[ Habiba ] According to him,
amid the chaos one of the guards
noticed that Thibeault had
witnessed the entire event
before his window
shade was closed.
It was clear he
had seen too much.
There was a smaller guard.
Now he -- when he heard the
other inmates freaking out what
I noticed is, I was
sitting there watching.
He had a knee on
Soleiman's neck.
Soleiman's not
moving like I said.
He has a knee on his
neck and he's yelling,
"Stop resisting,
stop resisting!"
He wasn't moving at all.
-[ Habiba ] If someone asked
you what happened to Soleiman
in there, how would you
describe how he died?
They beat him to death.
I don't-- I don't know
how else to describe it.
At all.
There's no--
there's no other answer.
They viciously
beat him to death.
I think that's what killed him.
He stopped
breathing because of that.
If I had to guess I'm not a
doctor or whatever but I know
what I seen.
-[ Habiba ] What did
investigators ask you when
they showed up?
They said they were there to
investigate a incident that
happened earlier in the day and
that they reviewed the cameras
and they believe that I
witnessed what happened.
-[ Habiba ] What did you say?
I told them that I
didn't witness anything,
that I was sleeping.
-[ Habiba ] Why'd you say that?
Because of the circumstances,
the situation I was in.
-[ Habiba ] You were afraid.
Yeah.
To be honest with you, yes.
I haven't talked about this
with anybody besides you guys.
The last thing I want
is my face on the news,
on TV.
A criminal who's been
breaking the law for this long,
the last thing they want
is their picture all
over the place.
There's certain rules you follow
in jail and snitching isn't one
of them, right?
This is the chap from
across the hall in the cell?
-[ Habiba ] Exactly.
We share the account
of the eye witness,
John Thibeault, with Dr. Butt
to see if it matches up with the
medical evidence.
They said they couldn't
determine a cause of death that
it was inconclusive how he
died, 'cause there was so many
different things that
could have killed him.
I don't think they can determine
which one it was for sure.
Hmm, interesting.
There was four guards.
It was a thousand pounds
of weight on top of him.
There's a guard with
a knee on his neck.
There's his head
being smashed off metal,
numerous punches to the head.
I'm pretty sure was 12, 13
minutes of non-stop violence
nonstop beating.
Like, in my eyes
it was unjustified.
There was no reason why.
Hmm.
The statement that I
heard, provided by the witness,
I thought, was a
credible statement.
It was well-organized and I
have no reason to criticize it.
-[ Habiba ] Dr. Butt says, if
the coroner's office had heard
the statement from John
Thibeault, it might have led to
a cause of death.
I think it's sort of a case that
might be a good one for review.
-[ Habiba ] So, let
me get this straight,
you think that this
would justify reopening
this investigation?
Yeah, I do.
I think it would, uh, justify
reopening the investigation.
I do feel that.
-[ Habiba ] Soleiman's autopsy
was overseen by the Ontario
coroner's office.
We share with the chief coroner,
Dr. Butt's conclusions along
with Thibeault's account.
Turns out, there is
a new development.
We became aware of
additional information.
That was brought to my attention
and I felt that that information
did require further
investigation within a criminal
justice perspective.
-[ Habiba ] While we were
looking into the case,
he has quietly reopened
the criminal investigation.
And this time it's
the provincial police,
not the local force,
handling the case.
To this day, no one has been
charged in Soleiman's death,
but with the
investigation now reopened,
all that could change.
-[ Habiba ] Do you
ever think about him?
Every day.
It's funny, I
don't even know him.
Never even met him.
-[ Habiba ] Former inmate John
Thibeault says even two years
later, he's still haunted by the
beating he witnessed that day.
Do you wish you hadn't seen it?
I've been through
hell since I seen it.
Course I wish I didn't see it.
Wish it didn't happen.
-[ Habiba ] At the
end of our interview,
Thibeault says he is now ready
to talk to the investigators.
This is a stepping stone, right?
To me it's a stepping stone.
It's the first step I've
taken into getting justice for
Soleiman and the family.
-[ Habiba ] Yusuf had
reached out to us for answers.
How are you?
Good.
How are you?
-[ Habiba ] Six months
after our initial meeting,
we meet again, this time to
tell him what we uncovered.
So we sent all the records about
your brother's investigation to
an independent forensic
pathologist and he said that
your brother died as a
result of excited delirium,
related to restraint.
And what I take it to mean
is he couldn't breathe.
He couldn't breathe.
Yeah.
So he suffocated.
-[ Habiba ] Does it
help to know at all?
What the cause of death was?
Yes.
It's important.
It's critical.
-[ Habiba ] Do you
want to keep going?
Yes.
-[ Habiba ] There was a witness.
And this man was in the cell
right across from your brother.
He saw the guards
attacking your brother.
And your brother,
according to what he said to us,
was not fighting back.
So these were the last
few moments of his life.
-[ Habiba ] And the final thing
is that because new information
has come to the
chief coroner's office,
he's asked to re-open the
criminal investigation into your
brother's death.
That's a good start, Habiba.
It's an important start.
It gives me hope that--
That my brother's
memory can help others.
That there are so many others
that are suffering in silence,
if some good that comes out
of my late brother's life,
can save someone else,
then that's what we want
as his memory.
Soleiman's story needs to
be heard so another father,
another mother, another brother
doesn't bury their loved one.
It has to be heard.
-[ Habiba ] Yusuf finally has
some answers as to what happened
to his brother but now
begins the new chapter...
getting justice for Soleiman.
[♪♪]
