Mohammad Shafia has previously said: “I would do it again 100 times”; “May the devil shit on their graves. Is that what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?” And “God’s curse on them for generations. … They betrayed Islam.”
“Shafias all found guilty of first-degree murder,” by Timothy Appleby for the Globe and Mail, January 29 (thanks to Mark):
Three Afghan-Canadians charged with murdering four relatives in a so-called “honour killing” have been convicted on all charges.
The verdict was reached shortly after 1 pm Sunday afternoon and delivered about an hour later to a packed courtroom.
In all, the seven-woman, five-man jury had deliberated just over 15 hours, spread over two days, sequestered on the second floor of the historic Frontenac County Court House in downtown Kingston.”¬
Tooba Mohammad Yahya, husband Mohammad Shafia and son Hamed Mohammed Shafia are escorted to court in Kinston last month.
A police officer stands outside the Frontenac County Courthouse, where Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed were undergoing trial for the murder of four family members, in Kingston, Ontario January 26, 2012.
һThe defendants face an automatic penalty of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
There have been other murder charges involving so-called “honour killings” — homicides of women slain out of a perverse desire to “purify” families of disgrace created by supposedly immoral conduct — but not on this scale, and not involving parents who were willing to wipe out half their family for the sake of their honour, and then lie about it.”¬
“ªCharged with four counts of first-degree murder were businessman Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and their eldest son, Hamed, 21.”¬
“ªThey stood accused of drowning sisters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13, whose bodies were found in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock, just east of Kingston, in June, 2009.”¬
The fourth person in the vehicle was Mr. Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53, who had entered Canada illegally, posing as his cousin, but who in fact was part of a polygamous marriage and who by every indication wanted to escape from it.
“ª All three defendants briefly addressed the court and proclaimed their innocence in what Mr. Justice Robert Maranger described as a “heinous crime.”
“We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn’t commit the murder and this is unjust,” Mr. Mohammad said through a translater.
Ms.Yahya responded: “Your honourable justice, this is not just. I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.”
Their son said, in English: “Sir, I did not drown my sisters anywhere.”
But the judge was unmoved.
“You have each been convicted of the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family…(A verdict) clearly supported by the evidence presented at this trial,” said Judge Maranger.
“It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime…the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour … that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”…