Court OKs abuse of process argument for killers

Two men found guilty of killing six people in British Columbia's most notorious gang slayings will be allowed a hearing to argue their claims of abuse of process, but their guilty verdicts stand.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal has upheld the first-degree murder verdicts for Matthew Johnston and Cody Haevischer in the so-called Surrey Six killings in October 2007.

The court denied their request for a new trial, but it did quash their convictions and send the matter back to court for a hearing on their applications for a stay of proceedings over the abuse of process claims.

The Appeal Court did not release full written reasons for judgment, saying lawyers must review them first and advise the court on revisions needed in order to protect confidential information.

Johnston and Haevischer were each found guilty in 2014 of six counts of first-degree murder for killing four gang members and two bystanders and they appealed the convictions at a hearing last October.

Lawyers for the men say they suffered an abuse of process because of police misconduct during the investigation and because the men were kept in solitary confinement for a long period before their trial.