HALIFAX -- A preliminary inquiry got underway Monday in the case of a former Halifax taxi driver accused of sexual assault.
Bassam Al-Rawi is accused in an alleged 2012 incident.
Police had decided in March 2013 there was insufficient evidence to charge him, but they took another look at the file in 2017 and decided there were grounds for a sexual assault charge.
There is a publication ban in place on evidence presented at the preliminary inquiry, which began Monday in Halifax provincial court before Judge Amy Sakalauskas.
The hearing will continue Tuesday, when Crown and defence lawyers are expected to make submissions.
Al-Rawi is also facing a retrial on a charge of sexual assault in connection with a separate incident in May 2015.
He was charged in the 2015 incident after an unconscious woman was found in the back seat of a cab naked from the waist down.
Al-Rawi's retrial was ordered after an acquittal was overturned in January 2018 by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
The retrial got underway last month, and is expected to continue April 15.
The acquittal, after the judge found there was no evidence of lack of consent, drew national attention.
Judge Gregory Lenehan's comment in his decision that "clearly, a drunk can consent" sparked a debate over intoxication and the capacity to consent to sex.
An independent judicial review committee last year dismissed several complaints against Lenehan, saying it found no evidence of impermissible reasoning or bias in his ruling.
But the appeal court ordered a new criminal trial, saying Lenehan erred in law by finding there was no evidence of lack of consent.
