A Canadian jury has convicted three members of an Afghan family for the drowning deaths of three teenage sisters and another woman, in what the judge described as 'cold-blooded, shameful murders' driven by a 'twisted concept of honour'. The verdicts conclude a case that shocked Canadians.
Prosecutors said the defendants killed the three teenage sisters because they felt the girls had dishonoured the family by defying strict rules on dress, dating, socialising and internet use. The jury took 15 hours to convict Muhammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21. Each was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, carrying an automatic life sentence with no parole for 25 years.
The victims were sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Muhammad, 52, Shafia's first wife in a polygamous marriage. Their bodies were found on 30 June 2009 in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped overnight on a trip from Niagara Falls to Montreal. The prosecution alleged the drownings were premeditated and staged as an accident.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the convictions. 'It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honourless crime,' he said. '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 civilised society.'
Defence lawyers argued the deaths were accidental, claiming the car plunged into the canal after Zainab took it for a joy ride. After the verdict, Muhammad Shafia declared through a translator: 'We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust.' His wife Tooba also protested, saying, 'I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.' Their son Hamed stated, 'I did not drown my sisters anywhere.'
The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in several countries before settling in Canada in 2007. The prosecution depicted a household controlled by a domineering father, with the son enforcing discipline. Evidence showed Zainab had fled to a shelter fearing her father, and condoms and photos of Sahar with her boyfriend had been found. The Canadian justice minister called honour killing 'barbaric and unacceptable in Canada'.
