http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16783354

Canada 'honour' killings: Shafia family found guilty

The three members of the Shafia family convicted were sentenced to a minimum of 25 years each in prison
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Three members of an Afghan immigrant family in Canada have been convicted of murdering four female relatives in a so-called "honour" killing.

The bodies - three teenage girls and their father's first wife - were found in a car submerged in a canal in the city of Kingston, Ontario, in 2009.

The girls' father, brother and mother will serve at least 25 years in prison.

Prosecutors said the father was angered that his two eldest daughters wanted boyfriends, in defiance of his values.

The court heard how Mohammad Shafia had become increasingly angry and upset with his three teenage daughters for having secret relationships with boys and wearing revealing clothes.

'Twisted notion of honour'
The prosecution relied heavily on wiretap recordings that revealed the level of Shafia's anger and comments in which he referred to his dead daughters as *****s.

"The apparent reason behind these cold shameful murders was that four (victims) offended your twisted notion of honour," the judge, Justice Robert Maranger, told Shafia and his two co-accused, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed.

The BBC's Lee Carter, in Toronto, says the three-month trial riveted the country.

After the verdict was read out, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminals, we are not murderers, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust.''

The bodies of sisters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13, were found along with the body of their father's first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, in the Rideau Canal in June 2009.

They had been on a visit to Niagara Falls and were returning home to Montreal when they stopped for the night near Kingston.

The prosecution alleged Mohammed, Tooba and Hamed drowned their four victims, placed their bodies in the car and then pushed it into the canal with the family's other car.

The court heard the girls lived in an abusive home and received frequent death threats, in part over the fact that the two eldest daughters had boyfriends without their father's approval.

The jury was told the decision to murder the four women was taken after 19-year-old Zainab took refuge in a shelter, defying her male relatives.

The defence said their deaths were the result of a joyride gone wrong after Zainab took the wheel

Ms Mohammad, 52, wanted a divorce and supported the girls' wish to live according to Western norms.

The prosecution presented wiretap evidence, including one conversation where Mohammad Shafia said his daughters "betrayed us immensely."

In other recordings, he was heard calling them treacherous and *****s and calling on the devil to defecate on their graves.

The 10-member Shafia family left Afghanistan in 1992. They came to Canada in 2007, having previously lived in Australia, Pakistan and Dubai.

Shafia married Tooba Yahya because his first wife was unable to have children.

She was living with Shafia and Yahya at the time of her murder. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.



where is this family from? and wtf is with you canadians man??!!!!

May Allah protect us from such hard testing situation.

I have been following this case. All keep my opinions to myself in this case, and say

???

The dad should have arranged his older daughter for me, rather than kill them?

locc

LOLLL his nt a damn top man for doing dis uno -_-

qais show some respect for the dead. there is a time for being an immature pig and then there is a time when you pretend to have some decency even though you don't.

Man I hate stuff like this. Personally I think King Mohammad Shafia should have stayed in Afghanistan if he couldn't handle it. Personally, I see this a lot in my generation and in the Afghan community. Sorry scratch the word "community", cause if there was one stuff like this wouldn't happen. The biggest reason why kids turn out like this is: (drum roll) THEIR PARENTS. If the parents don't teach them basic Islam, give them reasons why Islam makes sense, let them think, don't force to much stuff on them, don't let them get involved too much with western music, culture(going out with friends), everything would be fine. Personally, my parents never forced Islam on us, they taught us what we need to know (read quran, what Islam means, we went to mosque for friday prayers/sunday school). Now, my little sisters (one age 16 and one age 13) have decided for themselves to wear the hijab, not force from the parents. They themselves work hard at memorizing Al-Quran, all with the help of Allah. From my parents rearing I see that parents need to set limitations but you have to set freedoms as well. It is a very a delicate situation that needs to be taken care of. I put all blame on their parents, and I don't believe this so called "honor killing" was right, if I am correct isn't being "prideful' a big sin in Islam?

Stuff like this, makes it hard for a Muslim and an Afghan to speak up against stereotypes and the nonsense the media has been portraying about all Muslims/Afghans.

TheYoungTurks (news show on youtube) directed me to a website where people hate on each other. Can you believe what the biggest post on this website is? Its some kids hating on an Afghan family in Northern Virginia? Long story short, the family is really messed up and in crap like the guy above. I am afraid something like the above doesn't happen there. I don't want to name the family as that would be supporting the gossip but if any Afghans living there should know what I am talking about. They should try to help them maybe....

I know disrespecting your elders is wrong in Pashtun culture but I don't care I will say that the elders as far as my neck of the woods is concerned are completely useless. They know stuff like this happens with many Afghan children and they should be responsible for helping to build a way of life for Afghans in the USA, and for people like the above who are scared to adapt into the western culture. If I wasn't at college I would have started an Afghan Youth organization a long time ago. Personally I hate it when I see my peers listening to rap, talking in ghetto language, going to ****ty public schools, planning on becoming translators, dressing like ghetto people, trying to act like the low class people of our society.

Sorry for my rant, but stuff like this needs to be addressed by the Afghan elders and communities need to be created.

Barra tu,

What did I say to make you turn so insecure?

I obviously know very damn well the feeling of this family, I've been through these types of calamities before.

"Immature pig"

Why so mean

These issues are plagueing, if not all Afghan families, but every other Afghan family.