Lawyers seek acquittal, new trial for human smugglers convicted after family died at Manitoba-U.S. border [Video]

Lawyers for two men convicted of human smuggling charges by a Minnesota jury after a family from India froze to death in Manitoba while trying to walk across the Canada-U.S. border in 2022 are asking for their clients to either be acquitted in the case or get a new trial.

Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand’s attorneys made those arguments in separate motions filed in United States District Court in Minnesota on Friday.

Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago, and Shand of Florida were each found guilty on all four counts they faced related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it after a trial in Fergus Falls, Minn., in November.

That trial came almost three years after four members of the Patel family (who were not related to Harshkumar Patel) died while trying to walk across the border.

The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, …