What with the presidential "debates" and other inconsequential matters, a week and a half has gone by since we had an update on the murder trial of Peer Khairi, the immigrant who allegedly slit his wife’s throat, as far back as her spine, because she wouldn’t follow the Islamic customs of their "old country" -- Afghanistan.
It was Khairi himself who called 9-1-1 to report that his wife had been "murdered" and was lying dead in their cockroach-infested west Toronto apartment that very minute. After the corpse had been removed, Toronto's finest escorted Khairi to the batcave [police station, surely! Ed.] where they interviewed him for over three hours.
Standard operating procedure now is to videotape these interrogations, to obtain statements which may be used in court and to ensure that no rubber hoses or other extreme interrogatory techniques are used. But you know how it is with modern technology. Unnoticed by the gendarmes, the video camera quit functioning after the first hour or so. Weak batteries, perhaps. They did have a backup camera, but the detective in charge, errr, forgot to turn it on.
Nevertheless, the presiding judge has admitted, as part of the Crown's case, not just the videotape, but the testimony of the inquisitor, Detective Sergeant Peter Code, as to what he remembers of the conversation. Following are excerpts from Khairi's tearful depiction of the pitiful image of his life in the months before he almost cut off his wife's head.
"He said [his life] was unbearable," Det.-Sgt. Code testified yesterday. "He went on to make a comparison by stating that even an elephant, when it has too much weight on its back, will start to moan or cry."
The great weight, said the accused, was his family's incomprehensible willingness to embrace Canadian culture after emigrating from Afghanistan by way of India. Imagine! Not only did his children refuse to dress "sufficiently Muslim", but his wife not only allowed this, but stood up for her six kids' freedoms and her own!
That, Khairi told the police, was the last straw. Det.-Sgt. Code remembers him saying "he couldn't take it anymore and [the killing] happened."
At various times during the interrogation, Khairi said he was "out of his head" or "not thinking properly" when he butchered Randjida Khairi in March of 2008. But the more he told his tale of woe to the police, the more the fatal stabbing appeared as the culminatino of years of repressed fury, rather than the temporary loss of control which might see the charge reduced to second degree murder or even manslaughter.
"The children were doing anything that they wanted, they were wearing whatever they wanted, and [their mother] would let them do whatever they pleased," the detective testified. Khairi, now 65, was furious at his four daughters for going out at night. One even had the audacity to sleep over at her fiance's house.
He was angry at his two sons, who were unemployed, for "stealing communication services." He was angry at his wife for failing to properly dote on him after he crashed his car. She would make breakfast and do laundry for the children, but leave him to fend for himself, the admitted killer told police. "His family wouldn't even get him a cup of tea, let alone a meal, when he was suffering," Det.-Sgt. Code testified, reading from his notes of Khairi's statements.
The night he killed Randjida Khairi, the two were embroiled in a fight over his son's alleged theft, the court heard. "His wife had taken his son's side and she was yelling at him to leave their son alone," the court was told.
Their son eventually left the room, but Mr. and Mrs. Khairi continued screaming at each other. Tired of being "disrespected" by members of his family, Mr. Khairi then armed himself with two (2) knives and stabbed his wife until she was dead.
Two knives, right? You'd think that would indicate some degree or premeditation. Wouldn't a man in the grip of an insane rage just grab one knife, the first one that came to hand? In his interview with police hours later, Det.-Sgt. Code asked the accused if he believed he was crazy. "Mr. Khairi advised no, that he had problems but that he was not crazy," the officer testified.
At two points in the interview, according to the detective's testimony, Khairi began to cry. One was when the accused spoke of his first wife, the one he married before Randjida Khairi. Sadly, she was barren, lost a leg in a car accident and then died by, errr, accidentally falling down a set of stairs.
The other time Khairi shed tears was when he spoke of the elephant. His family life had become "too much," he said again and again. "Even an elephant," he whined, "will cry underneath all that weight."
Det.-Sgt. Code was the Crown's last witness. The defence opens today. Agent 3 will be on hand to see if Khairi takes the stand to turn on the tears for the jury.
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