Accomplice in brazen jail break gets seven years

A former Edmonton man was handed a seven-year prison sentence today for pointing an imitation handgun at two unarmed correctional officers and helping a reputedly dangerous prisoner to escape custody.

Ontario Court Justice Maria Speyer imposed the maximum five years allowed by the Criminal Code on Aram Hadi, 20, for the offence of assisting a prisoner to escape. 

The judge sentenced him to three years for the carjacking of a corrections van and one year for wearing a mask in the commission of a crime. Those terms are to be served concurrent to the five-year sentence.

Hadi received an additional one-year sentence for pointing an imitation handgun and another year  for breaching probation. The prisoner escape on Nov. 24, 2009, was committed while Hadi was serving a sentence on weekends at a Toronto-area jail for a prior conviction for trafficking in cocaine.