In Kingston ON, the trial of Afghan-Canadian businessman Mohammad Shafia, his second wife -- second as in "bigamous" -- Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their 21-year-old son Hamed, resumed on Monday. The trio are each charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the drownings of three of their daughters, Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13, and Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53.
Agent 3, formerly a criminal defence lawyer himself, is keeping us up to date. Before the Christmas break, Mohammad Shafia testified, in his own defence, that he was nowhere near the scene of the crime, knew nothing about it, and was a strict but loving father to his daughters. He had no grudge against them until he saw pictures of them dressed in revealing clothing and messing around with a boy. But that was after they were dead and that's why he said "May the devil shit on their graves."
Now it's the surviving wife who's on the stand, and the defence strategy is becoming somewhat clearer. Mrs Shafia II had told police, in a videotaped interview, that she was indeed at the lock on the Rideau Canal when the car plunged into the water, but couldn't remember anything because she was some yards away and besides had fainted.
Yesterday she said that was all a lie. She was really at the motel where the family was stopping en route from Niagara Falls to Montréal. The oldest daughter asked for the car keys, and that's all Tooba Shafia knows about it.
So why did she lie to the police? To protect her son! That's because everyone knows Canadian police are just like Afghan police. They always torture and beat suspects until they get a confession. Tooba didn't want to see her son beaten to a pulp.
What about her husband? Well, Tooba says now, Mohammad really loved all his kids, and only got angry when he saw the aforementioned pix... after the carful of bodies was pulled out of the drink. What about when Mohammad told Tooba that "if they were alive he would cut them into little pieces"? Oh, that's just an expression that Afghan men use all the times to relieve tension.
What about killing to preserve the family honour? She never heard of such a thing until she came to Canada. No, it is unknown in Afghan and Muslim culture.
Agent 3 says it looks like the plan is to put it all on the son, Hamed. If he serves the full 25 years -- Canada has no death penalty or "life means life" sentence -- he will still be only middle-aged when he gets out of Her Majesty's Prison.
The trial continues.
Footnote: Honour killings are not just "a Muslim thing". See following post.
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