Alleged Montreal Mafia leader Stefano Sollecito has bail hearing in murder case

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A Quebec Superior Court judge has begun hearing evidence in a request from Stefano Sollecito, an alleged leader of the Montreal Mafia, who is seeking a release on bail following his arrest in June in Project Alliance, an investigation that resulted in the arrests of several organized crime figures.

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Sollecito, 57, is seeking the release for health reasons. On Wednesday, he was brought into a prisoner’s dock in the courtroom in a wheelchair and was assisted by two women who appeared to be nurses. One of the women moved his wheelchair around awkwardly, looking for a spot in the cramped space from which Sollecito could follow the hearing comfortably.

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When he was arrested in 2015, in Project Magot-Mastiff, a different investigation involving organized crime figures, he managed to get bail because he had cancer. Since then, Sollecito has lost a lot of his hair and he didn’t appear to be in good health on Wednesday.

Bettina Rizzuto, the sister of Leonardo Rizzuto, 56, another person who was arrested last month in Project Alliance, was in the courtroom. She stood up while the two women brought Sollecito into the courtroom and she waved to him.

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Justice Alexandre Boucher repeated an order that a publication ban has been placed on all of the evidence heard during Sollecito’s bail hearing. The judge is expected to hear evidence over the course of two days.

The first witness to testify on Wednesday was David Desrochers, a Montreal police detective and the lead investigator in Project Alliance.

Sollecito, Rizzuto and other men are charged with the murder of Lorenzo LoPresti, who was killed on Oct. 24, 2011, in the St-Laurent borough.

Sollecito and Rizzuto are also charged with conspiring to kill LoPresti and seven other organized crime figures between 2011 and 2019.

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