Honor killing trial opens in Canada. “Not a whodunit, so much as ‘why did he do it?’ defence says,” by Neco Cockburn for The Ottawa Citizen, May 8 (thanks to Joseph):
The flashes were quick, far in the dark distance at the rainy shopping plaza parking lot where Khatera Sadiqi would soon be found barely breathing, slumped against her fiancé in a car.
There are four flashes on the video footage caught by a bank’s ATM camera, then a pause as a car’s headlights sweep a nearby area. Then another flash. All within 37 seconds.
The footage was played during the first day of the murder trial of Hasibullah Sadiqi, where assistant Crown attorney Mark Moors told a jury they are expected to hear that the now 23-year-old man killed his sister and her fiancé in an “honour killing” rooted in anger over their engagement.
Sadiqi’s defence lawyers have indicated they will not dispute that Sadiqi was responsible for the killings, but will argue that he is not guilty of murder because he was provoked.
During his opening statements, Moors told the court that Sadiqi shot his 20-year-old sister, Khatera, and her fiancé, Feroz Mangal, with a .44 Magnum revolver while they sat in a parked car at the Elmvale Acres shopping plaza, at St. Laurent Boulevard and Smyth Road, just before 1 a.m. on Sept. 19, 2006.
Sadiqi, a Canadian of Afghan descent, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The court is expected to hear he was upset because his sister got engaged without the permission of their father and had moved in with Mangal’s family, Moors told the five-woman, seven-man jury.
The trial is expected to hear that Sadiqi believed that his sister had brought dishonour upon the Sadiqi name, Moors said, later adding that a witness is expected to testify that Sadiqi said after the killing that he believed his sister would be a martyr and go to paradise.
Although Sadiqi came to Canada when he was very young, he had a “profound attachment” to his heritage, which shaped his views of relationships between men and women, Moors said. The Crown intends to lead expert testimony regarding honour killings, he said.
The defence will not dispute the fact that Sadiqi was responsible for the killings. Natasha Calvinho, one of Sadiqi’s lawyers, told the jury that the case centres on the classification of the homicides.
“It’s not a whodunnit so much as a ‘why did he do it?’ ” she said….
Seems clear enough.