Family in Canada guilty of "honor" killings

From foreground left, Mohammad Shafia, 58; Hamed Shafia, 21; and Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, are seen in a Jan. 9, 2012 file photo at the Frontenacs courthouse in Kingston, Ontario. / AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Lars Hagberg

KINGSTON, Ontario — A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

• no previous page
• next

1/2

[nfission]

Un-freaking believable that this is okay in the Muslim world. But why on earth would they think it was okay in North America? This is very sick indeed.

[FP1970]

Remember, these wonderful cultures are coming to N. American and W. Europe every day through immigration, and will soon be the majority if mass immigration continues. Even without a national majority, they can start to impose Shariah law in theneighborhoods they control as is already happening in France.
Our hipster friends will find out the hard way if all religions and cultures are just the same or just as bad.

[catwoman1952]

drown them all

[rainbowroosie]

"Muslims come here not to assimilate, but to take over. They don't like us. In fact, they despise us. Even to the point of killing their own children for becoming like us. Wake up western society and smell the facts."

Very well stated.

[lloydbest1]

This came from an analysis of the crime in a CNN article on this incident:

"...That witness, University of Toronto professor Shahrzad Mojab, said that in some families, honor is worth more than life."....""What we need to understand is that the male power and the male desire for the control of the woman's body and the woman's sexuality -- the honor resides in that sort of understanding and the ownership of women's body and sexuality," he said. "So when that is being presented in a way that is not acceptable to the social norm, then the only way the honor can be restored is by purifying that. And the purification is through blood.""

We DO understand. And it is precisely that control or "power over" one has over another that is unacceptable ANYwhere culture for ANY reason.

Killing one's relatives for reasons of "honor" is not a mitigating circumstance but an aggrivating one. Doing so makes an already heinous crime much worse.

[WiseAsOwl]

I'm from the U.S. Hopefully, Canada will lead the U.S. and the Western world in refusing to tolerate ANY unlawful acts such as described here.. There's no way to describe how loathsome this kind of thing is.. It seems to me the most obvious, disgusting, "ultimate" display of sexual discrimination in the world. The very worst.. with the possible exception of aborting babies just because they are girls...

[noname2138]

So many times, women attempt to leave male abusers, whether its their parents (of any religon), their spouses, or their boyfriends, and authorities repeatedly look the other way. Remember the beauty salon shooting in California? She was terrified of her ex--nicole brown simpson? terrified of her ex. Yes, some children may make up stories about their parents, or ex wives even, they are labeled "gold diggers", and pushed aside. This story is strong indications that there continue to be less if any solutions for abused women of any culture.

[credibility2]

All countries like the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Spain, etc. need to have in place mandated laws prohibiting the practice of or the recognition of Islamic Sharia Law. That such a law would have protected these murdered innocent women probably would not have mattered, but it may have given some pause to these evil inhuman types that would commit such uncivilized crimes. Those coming to such countries and who are given legal status or citizenship should also be forced to denounce all laws except those in force in their new countries of citizenship. The murderers should be executed.

[guest173]

it's amazing to see a country admit about listening in on phone calls. Seems like America is so scared of seeming communist they hate to admit when they have to listen in, it's all kept hush hush.

[vielmann]

What I can't understand is if this dog of a father wanted such a strict religious environment for his family, what the hell was he doing living in a free western and liberal nation like Canada? What gives with that? I am so sad that the daughters had pleaded for help from the government and were ignored until this happened. Sad indeed.