An Afghan immigrant couple and their son went on trial on Thursday in Canada for first-degree murder in the 2009 deaths of four female family members, which prosecutors described as “honor killings.”
Mohammad Shafia, 58, his 41-year-old wife Tooba Mahommad Yahya and their 20-year-old son Hamed have pleaded not guilty to the deaths of the couple’s three daughters and Shafia’s first wife.
If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The accused were arrested after a car was discovered submerged in a canal lock near Kingston in June 2009 containing the bodies of Zainab Shafia, 19; Sahar Shafia, 17; Geeti Shafia, 13; and Rona Amir Mohammad, 50.
Prosecutor Laurie Lacelle told the court the deaths were honor killings committed to remove the perceived shame the women had brought on their family.
Canada has seen 13 such killings — which are more common 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.
Lacelle said the jury would hear of a home gripped by fear, abuse and death threats over the behavior of the victims, including the fact that the two eldest daughters had boyfriends without their father’s approval.
Shafia and his family came 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.
The accused immediately went to the police to report the victims missing and said the family had stopped at a Kingston motel late at night to rest on their way home to Montreal from a vacation in Niagara Falls.
Shafia told authorities that his eldest daughter must have taken the car without his permission and crashed it into the canal, but further investigation revealed that he had told witnesses he planned to kill her.
Prosecutors say that according to cellphone records, his son Hamed appeared to have scoped out the Kingston area days before the family arrived. They also say he researched bodies of water in the Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston areas in the days leading up to the deaths.
Lacelle told the jury they would hear Shafia in police wiretaps recorded days after the deaths telling the co-accused “There is nothing more valuable than our honor,” and calling the dead women “treacherous” for betraying them.
The youngest was killed for wearing revealing attire, despite having warned school officials and police of abuse in the home, Lacelle said.
The trial is expected to last up to three months, with dozens of witnesses scheduled to be called to testify.
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