Talal El Bakkar, owner of Aladdin's Cafe, who was given a three months sentence to be served on weekends after pleading guilty to sexual interference of a person under 16. (Kendall Hanson/CHEK News)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Charges stayed

Charges stayed against convicted sex offender for allegedly breaching conditions

Aug 13, 2019 | 3:56 AM

NANAIMO — A man at the centre of one of Nanaimo’s most high-profile criminal cases won’t spend any further time in jail for allegedly breaching his probation conditions.

Talal El Bakkar was accused of violating his curfew between 9:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. back in early March, 2019. He pleaded not guilty at the time and was expected to go to trial on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

However, the charge of breaching his probation was stayed at provincial court in Nanaimo a week earlier on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

El Bakkar won’t face any jail time for the alleged breach.

He was under a nine month curfew as part of a sentence which shocked the Nanaimo community.

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El Bakkar was given a 90-day intermittent sentence and three years probation after pleading guilty to having sex with a teenager under 16. It was the lightest possible sentence for the offense.

The sentence is being served on weekends, to let El Bakkar run his restaurant Aladdin’s Cafe in downtown Nanaimo during the week.

His last day of the intermittent sentence is set for Sept. 15, 2019.

El Bakkar’s lawyer Michael Ritzker has claimed Aladdin’s Cafe is now the target of continued vandalism and harassment since the sentence was handed down in November, 2018.

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