Afghans sentenced in Canada ‘honor killings’

Bodies of the found in car submerged in a canal lock near Kingston, Ontario in June 2009.


Afp January 30, 2012

KINGSTON, CANADA: An Afghan immigrant couple and their son were found guilty in a Canadian court Sunday of first degree murder in the 2009 “honor killing” deaths of four female family members, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The jury in Kingston, Ontario, deliberated for two days before pronouncing a guilty sentence against Mohammad Shafia, 58, his 42-year-old wife Tooba Mahommad Yahya and their 21-year-old son Hamed.

Judge Robert Maranger called the crimes “heinous” and “twisted” as he sentenced the accused to 25 years in prison, and said the evidence clearly supported the charges.

The three defendants were found guilty to the deaths of the couple's three daughters and Shafia's first wife in his polygamous marriage after a four-month-long trial that heard dozens of witnesses testify.

The bodies of the victims -- Zainab Shafia, 19; Sahar Shafia, 17; Geeti Shafia, 13; and Rona Amir Mohammad, 50 -- were found in a car submerged in a canal lock near Kingston, Ontario in June 2009.

Prosecutor Laurie Lacelle told the court during the trial that the deaths were “honor killings” committed to remove the perceived shame the women had brought on their family.

Court testimony told of an abusive home gripped by fear and where the victims receive frequent death threats, in part over the fact that the two eldest daughters had boyfriends without their father's approval.

Shafia and his family had come to Canada in 2007, after living in Australia, Pakistan and Dubai over the previous 15 years.

On the morning of the deaths, a car was discovered underwater at the upper lock at Kingston Mills with the four bodies inside. A post-mortem examination indicated they died of drowning.

Canada has seen 13 such killings -- which are usually seen in countries in the Middle East and South Asia – since 2002, according to Amin Muhammed, a psychiatry professor at Memorial University in Saint John's, Newfoundland.

COMMENTS (4)

Lone Star | 12 years ago | Reply

Poor Afghani women/girls are the most unfotunate people, if not Taliban in Afghanistan then their reps. in the shape of parents in Canada. Deeply saddened indeed.

Truth From Pakistan | 12 years ago | Reply

Sickness of mind has no geographic boundary. The "honor killing" is as abhorable in Canda or Afghanistan or in Pakistan regardless of cast, colour, creed, religion and customs ! I can only praise the Canadian court for coming to right drop scene of this brutal murder.

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