Prison sentence increased for B.C. man convicted of kidnapping, extortion

VANCOUVER – B.C.’s highest court has ordered a man to serve an extra year and a half in prison for his role in a kidnapping case linked to gangs.

Demple Manjit Brar was one of five men convicted of kidnapping, extortion and unlawful confinement in May 2013 and later sentenced to three and a half years in custody.

The charges were laid after Sulaiman Safi was kidnapped in October 2011 from a Vancouver restaurant in a dispute over the failed transfer of $400,000 to the U.S.

At the time of the arrests, police said the kidnapping involved several suspects linked to the Red Scorpions and Independent Soldiers gangs, and that the kidnappers were acting on behalf of a criminal organization in eastern Canada.

The Crown appealed Brar’s sentence, and the B.C. Court of Appeal has now ruled that three and a half years is an unfit sentence and falls outside the appropriate range of punishments for such crimes.

The court has ordered Brar to serve concurrent sentences of five years for extortion and kidnapping and has also given him 13 days credit for time spent in custody before sentencing.