On the fourth anniversary of the murder of a Muslim family in London, Ont., the man found guilty in the attack plans to appeal his convictions.
According to a court document obtained by OMNI News, Nathanial Veltman is now appealing his convictions in the Afzaal family murder case, not his sentences, as his previous lawyer announced.
Veltman was found guilty in November 2023 of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting the Afzaal family with his truck while they were out for a walk in London on June 6, 2021.
Forty-six-year-old Salman Afzaal; his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman; their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna; and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal were killed in the attack. The couple’s nine-year-old son was seriously hurt but survived.
A judge ruled in February of 2025 that the murder of four members of the Afzaal family by Veltman was an act of terrorism, and she sentenced Veltman to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Veltman was also sentenced to a concurrent life sentence for the attempted murder of a boy who survived the 2021 attack in London.
His new lawyer Stephen Whitzman confirmed in a phone call that his client is abandoning his sentence appeal.
The conviction appeal will be based on what Whitzman descried as “alleged errors of law,” confirming that the decision whether the appeal moves forward won’t happen before next year, adding that reaching that point will require “a lot of labour” from his office.
Whitzman says that he still hasn’t met Veltman yet, and that they only spoke over the phone, confirming to OMNI News that he is an institution outside the province of Ontario, but declining to mention where.
When asked if his client is trying to exonerate himself, Whitzman said no.
He also said that Veltman isn’t complaining “of anything serious.”