It took them the better part of the weekend, but the jury in the Toronto murder trial of Peer Khairi has come back with a verdict. They have found the Afghan Muslim immigrant guilty of second-degree murder in the near beheading and repeated stabbing of his wife. Apparently the defence of "resettlement stress" -- not making that up -- didn't wash with the jury of Peer's peers. [Couldn't resist it, could you. Ed.]
Khairi returns to the Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday for sentencing. He will automatically get life. The only question is how long he must serve before being eligible to apply for parole. The waiting time could be anywhere from 10 to 25 years.
Is deportation an option? Of course not. Canadians are famously tolerant of immigrants and their foreign cultures and religions, no matter how barbaric. So Khairi will continue to be a Canadian resident -- at taxpayers' continuing expense, of course -- for another decade, and likely longer.
Showing posts with label Khairi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Khairi. Show all posts
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
"Culture clash" an excuse for murder? Maybe in Canada
Walt expressed puzzlement, a couple of days ago, about what had happened in the Toronto murder trial of Peer Khairi, the Afghan-by-way-of-India immigrant who admittedly slashed his wife's throat so deeply that he just about cut through her spine. Agent 3, our "honour crime" reporter [as distinct from "honoured crime reporter" Ed.] has come through with an update.
Turns out that although the evidence was in, and closing submissions made by the crown and defence attorneys last week, the jury got a couple of days off, following which one member was excused for "persistent illness". Perhaps the horrific details of the crime made him sick. Anyway, they are starting deliberations this morning.
Their choice is between premeditated murder and manslaughter, so the key issue is not whether Khairi killed his wife -- that's admitted -- but what was in his mind [if anything. Ed.] when he did it.
In his closing address to the jury, Khairi's defender called for a manslaughter conviction, arguing that his client's mind was "clouded by mental illness" and "incapable of forming murderous intent".
The Crown, however, puts the whole ugly case down to culture clash, beginning when the family, originally from Afghanistan, were allowed to enter Canada in 2003, despite having been settled in India for more than a decade in India. Once a refugee, always a refugee?
Whether he was a refugee or an immigrant, Mr. Khairi was certainly one angry Muslim. The picture painted at the trial was of a man enraged at his wife's newfound desire for equal rights and her support for their children's increasingly Westernized behaviour, including late-night dates and non-Muslim dress.
"What Peer Khairi intended to do that day was crystal clear," said the Crown attorney. "He intended to kill the wife who had defied him, to kill the wife who was responsible for his children turning against his wishes, to kill the woman who had decided to leave him."
The defence takes a markedly different view. Khairi just lost control for a moment, his lawyer said. (Long enough, though, to pick up not one but two knives, says Agent 3.)
The defence attorney says if jurors can only remain "rational and dispassionate," they will see Mr. Khairi as a pathetic old man: "Not a dominating figure seeking to impose his will and values on his wife and six children, but in reality, a sad, even pathetic figure — an elderly man, an immigrant, alone and friendless, completely illiterate, of low-to-moderate intelligence at best; isolated by a total inability to master the English language and with few marketable skills, unable to obtain employment and to support his family as he had always done in the past."
In other words, your typical (if not ideal) refugee. And let not other prospective refugees ["immigrants", surely! Ed.] worry. Canadians believe in multiculturalism, tolerance and celebrating diversity. You are welcome to cling to your religious beliefs and cultural traditions, no matter how irrational and barbaric they may be. As for clashing with Canadian culture... What culture would that be?!
Turns out that although the evidence was in, and closing submissions made by the crown and defence attorneys last week, the jury got a couple of days off, following which one member was excused for "persistent illness". Perhaps the horrific details of the crime made him sick. Anyway, they are starting deliberations this morning.
Their choice is between premeditated murder and manslaughter, so the key issue is not whether Khairi killed his wife -- that's admitted -- but what was in his mind [if anything. Ed.] when he did it.
In his closing address to the jury, Khairi's defender called for a manslaughter conviction, arguing that his client's mind was "clouded by mental illness" and "incapable of forming murderous intent".
The Crown, however, puts the whole ugly case down to culture clash, beginning when the family, originally from Afghanistan, were allowed to enter Canada in 2003, despite having been settled in India for more than a decade in India. Once a refugee, always a refugee?
Whether he was a refugee or an immigrant, Mr. Khairi was certainly one angry Muslim. The picture painted at the trial was of a man enraged at his wife's newfound desire for equal rights and her support for their children's increasingly Westernized behaviour, including late-night dates and non-Muslim dress.
"What Peer Khairi intended to do that day was crystal clear," said the Crown attorney. "He intended to kill the wife who had defied him, to kill the wife who was responsible for his children turning against his wishes, to kill the woman who had decided to leave him."
The defence takes a markedly different view. Khairi just lost control for a moment, his lawyer said. (Long enough, though, to pick up not one but two knives, says Agent 3.)
The defence attorney says if jurors can only remain "rational and dispassionate," they will see Mr. Khairi as a pathetic old man: "Not a dominating figure seeking to impose his will and values on his wife and six children, but in reality, a sad, even pathetic figure — an elderly man, an immigrant, alone and friendless, completely illiterate, of low-to-moderate intelligence at best; isolated by a total inability to master the English language and with few marketable skills, unable to obtain employment and to support his family as he had always done in the past."
In other words, your typical (if not ideal) refugee. And let not other prospective refugees ["immigrants", surely! Ed.] worry. Canadians believe in multiculturalism, tolerance and celebrating diversity. You are welcome to cling to your religious beliefs and cultural traditions, no matter how irrational and barbaric they may be. As for clashing with Canadian culture... What culture would that be?!
Monday, November 5, 2012
Muslim couple doused daughter with acid because "it was her fate"
Agent 3 seems to have been mesmerized by this weekend's electoral antics, so has failed to report to us on the Toronto trial of Peer Khairi, accused of severing his wife's head from her torso (or just about) to preserve his honour. The alleged murderer is an immigrant from Afghanistan, and apparently was not told by Canadian authorities to check his barbaric customs at the door of the welfare office.
While we wait to find out if the Khairi trial has gone to the jury, and what they decide, we can consider another honour crime horror story, this one coming from Pakistan courtesy of the BBC.
Behold -- in their his 'n' hers jail cells -- Zaheen and Mohammad Zafar, a Muslim couple accused of killing their 15-year-old daughter by giving her a bath -- an acid bath. Why? Because she sullied the Zafar family's honour by looking at a boy. Find it hard to believe? Click here to see a clip from the BBC's interview with the couple.
Hear the girl's parents give their version of the events of 29 October. The father said the girl had turned to look at a boy who drove by on a motorcycle, and he told her it was wrong.
In case you didn't hear the voice-over properly, the interviewer interprets the mother as explaining, "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."
The father said the family had already come under public censure because of their older daughter's behaviour, but he did not detail what exactly he meant.
According to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, at least 943 women were killed in 2011 in the name of "honour" last year. Only 20 of them were given medical care before they died, the report said. The real toll is believed to be higher because many of the crimes go unreported.
"Throughout the year," the same report continues, "women were callously killed in the name of honour when they went against family wishes in any way, or even on the basis of suspicion that they did so. Women were sometimes killed in the name of honour over property disputes and inheritance rights."
Some people from Pakistan and other countries where Islam and Muslim culture prevail are allowed to immigrate to the so-called Christian (or should we say "secular") societies of the West, where such enormities are not tolerated.
At least, that's the way it used to be. Today, in the name of tolerance and "celebrating diversity", Muslim men -- sometimes aided by their wives, brothers or sons -- kill their (other) wives, sisters and daughters with little or no regard to the laws of civilized society. All for the sake of "honour", of course. Isn't multiculturalism great?
Footnote: Honour killings are not unknown in the Sikh and Hindu communities of North America and Europe. But we mustn't judge other religions and cultures. We all pray to the same God, don't we? Hm?
While we wait to find out if the Khairi trial has gone to the jury, and what they decide, we can consider another honour crime horror story, this one coming from Pakistan courtesy of the BBC.
Behold -- in their his 'n' hers jail cells -- Zaheen and Mohammad Zafar, a Muslim couple accused of killing their 15-year-old daughter by giving her a bath -- an acid bath. Why? Because she sullied the Zafar family's honour by looking at a boy. Find it hard to believe? Click here to see a clip from the BBC's interview with the couple.
In case you didn't hear the voice-over properly, the interviewer interprets the mother as explaining, "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."
The father said the family had already come under public censure because of their older daughter's behaviour, but he did not detail what exactly he meant.
According to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, at least 943 women were killed in 2011 in the name of "honour" last year. Only 20 of them were given medical care before they died, the report said. The real toll is believed to be higher because many of the crimes go unreported.
"Throughout the year," the same report continues, "women were callously killed in the name of honour when they went against family wishes in any way, or even on the basis of suspicion that they did so. Women were sometimes killed in the name of honour over property disputes and inheritance rights."
Some people from Pakistan and other countries where Islam and Muslim culture prevail are allowed to immigrate to the so-called Christian (or should we say "secular") societies of the West, where such enormities are not tolerated.
At least, that's the way it used to be. Today, in the name of tolerance and "celebrating diversity", Muslim men -- sometimes aided by their wives, brothers or sons -- kill their (other) wives, sisters and daughters with little or no regard to the laws of civilized society. All for the sake of "honour", of course. Isn't multiculturalism great?
Footnote: Honour killings are not unknown in the Sikh and Hindu communities of North America and Europe. But we mustn't judge other religions and cultures. We all pray to the same God, don't we? Hm?
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Muslim wife-killer pleads self-defence
With all the commotion about Sandy and the presidential election, it's not easy to remember that there are other events unfolding. Like the trials of third world immigrants accused of murdering their wives or sisters or daughters or all of the above to "preserve their honour".
One such is Peer Khairi, an Afghan Muslim who immigrated to Canada by way of India, and allegedly cut off his wife's head -- or nearly so, as he couldn't sever the spinal column -- a few years back. He's on trial, at last, in Toronto this week, and yesterday took the stand in his own defence.
Why would a man attempt to decapitate his wife? (The decapitation didn't quite work, by the way, but he did succeed in killing her.) Khairi's first problem with Randjida was that she called him names -- "honourless" and a "cuckold" -- and he couldn't tolerate such insults any longer.
But on the occasion in question, Khairi told the court, it was worse than that. On that fateful day, she lunged at him with a knife -- for no reason, of course -- leaving him no choice but to slit her throat, stab her repeatedly, and let her bleed to death on their Toronto apartment floor while he called 911.
"I totally lost my control. I was not able to control myself," Khairi said, through a Dari interpreter (in spite of having been in Canada for close to a decade). He testified that "I was thinking about killing myself, not killing her." Why he didn't then start hacking away at himself went unexplained.
The trial continues today. Agent 3 is following the story and will let us know if Khairi comes up with a further or better excuse. Stay tuned.
One such is Peer Khairi, an Afghan Muslim who immigrated to Canada by way of India, and allegedly cut off his wife's head -- or nearly so, as he couldn't sever the spinal column -- a few years back. He's on trial, at last, in Toronto this week, and yesterday took the stand in his own defence.
Why would a man attempt to decapitate his wife? (The decapitation didn't quite work, by the way, but he did succeed in killing her.) Khairi's first problem with Randjida was that she called him names -- "honourless" and a "cuckold" -- and he couldn't tolerate such insults any longer.
But on the occasion in question, Khairi told the court, it was worse than that. On that fateful day, she lunged at him with a knife -- for no reason, of course -- leaving him no choice but to slit her throat, stab her repeatedly, and let her bleed to death on their Toronto apartment floor while he called 911.
"I totally lost my control. I was not able to control myself," Khairi said, through a Dari interpreter (in spite of having been in Canada for close to a decade). He testified that "I was thinking about killing myself, not killing her." Why he didn't then start hacking away at himself went unexplained.
The trial continues today. Agent 3 is following the story and will let us know if Khairi comes up with a further or better excuse. Stay tuned.
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