CBC News - Canada July 23, 2009
Canal victims killed by family: police
Tooba Mohammad Yehya, left, her son Hamid Mohammad Shafia, centre, and his father Mohammad Shafia, right, are seen outside a Kingston, Ont., courthouse on Thursday. (CBC)
The father, mother and brother of three teenage girls from Montreal whose bodies were found in a submerged car in a Kingston, Ont., canal were charged Thursday with killing them and a woman believed to be the father's first wife.
Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13, were found dead last month along with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock near Kingston.
Parents Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yehya and their son Hamid Mohammad Shafia, 18, have each been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to murder, Insp. Brian Begbie announced at a news conference at Kingston Police headquarters on Thursday.
The three, who live in the Montreal neighbourhood of St. Léonard, are being held in custody in Kingston while waiting for bail hearings.
This photo taken in the 1980s is said to show the wedding of Rona Amir Mohammed, left, and Mohammad Shafia, centre, in Afghanistan. The photo was sent to the media by email by a purported family member. (Canadian Press)
The submerged black Nissan Sentra was discovered around 12:30 p.m. on June 30, the same day Mohammad Shafia went to the Kingston Police station to report that his daughters and a woman he said at the time was his cousin were missing, along with his vehicle. He was accompanied by his wife and son, said police.
Begbie said investigators have "cause to believe" the older woman found in the car was, in fact, Mohammad Shafia's first wife.
Police said that by the time the bodies were discovered, they had been in the water for as long as 12 hours.
The car's front end was up against the lock wall as if the vehicle had plunged in backward.
The father told police he discovered his car was missing after the family had stopped at a Kingston motel following a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont., the day before. The family had been travelling in two vehicles.
When they were told about the discovery of the submerged car, police said all three suspects spoke about their trip to Niagara Falls and Zainab's habit of taking the car without consent and without a driver's licence, a claim police say is untrue.
"Our investigation to date reveals that this allegation is false and that on the night in question, the Nissan was operated by a combination of the three accused persons," said Begbie.
Girls lived as 'Canadian teenagers'
The three Shafia sisters are seen in an undated family photo. (CBC)
Police also said the son drove the family's second vehicle to Montreal in the early-morning hours of June 30 and returned to Kingston to accompany his parents to the police station. The couple have three more children — two daughters and a son — now in care of youth protection services in Montreal.
Both vehicles — the submerged Nissan and a Lexus SUV — are being examined by police, said Begbie.
Police said they are looking into whether the deaths were an "honour killing" — a tribal custom practiced in some parts of the world in which the majority of victims are women who are perceived to have brought shame to their family.
Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said he received an email from someone who is likely a relative of the family who claimed it was such a killing.
"That will form a part of the ongoing investigation," said Tanner. "There are family members in a variety of parts of the world and investigators will be following up with them.
"Whether that was a part of the motive within the family, based on one ... or more of the girls' behaviour is open to a little bit of speculation."
Tanner said the girls were living as "Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians."
Tarek Fatah, radio talk show host and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Tanner made a "very clear reference" to honour killings during the news conference when he discussed freedom of expression and the choices that young women in Canada, as Canadian citizens, have.
Mother 'distraught,' says lawyer
Yehya's lawyer, Lucie Joncas, told reporters outside court that the mother is grieving for her children.
"It's obvious my client is very emotionally distraught by the whole tragedy," Joncas said.
Waice Ferdoussi, who represents Shafia, said that his client was "very surprised" he was arrested and that they were a "close family."
"These are very severe charges, not a joke," he added.
The family, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, spent 15 years in Dubai before moving to Montreal two years ago.
Tanner said other police agencies, including the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, as well as Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto police forces, were involved in the investigation.
This article was found at:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/23/canal-arrests023.html
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The Montreal Gazette - July 24, 2009
Family charged in possible honour killings of Montreal women in Kingston
KINGSTON – A St. Léonard couple allegedly began making plans to kill their three daughters, along with the husband’s first wife, weeks before the bodies of all four victims were found in a car submerged in the Rideau Canal.
Mohammad Shafia, 56, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 39, and their eldest son, Hamed Shafia, 18, all face first-degree murder charges in the deaths, which came to light last month after a Nissan Sentra was discovered in the canal near the Kingston Mills Locks. Conspiracy charges filed at the Kingston courthouse Thursday reveal investigators believe plans to commit the killings were hatched as far back as May 1, long before the family travelled to Niagara Falls. The deaths occurred during the return trip to Montreal.
The couple and their son face four counts each of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
The small detail about conspiracy in the indictment added yet another twist in a story that becomes stranger at each turn.
A relative of the couple has told reporters she believes the murders were carried out as so-called honour killings. Kingston police confirmed Thursday that 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, and that he was also married to Yahya. A person claiming to be a relative sent an anonymous email to The Gazette alleging that Shafia was “disgraced” by his daughters’ behaviour in Canada and that he wanted his first wife to return to Afghanistan while hiding the fact they were married. The author of the email said Shafia married Yahya as his second wife because Mohammad could not have children. The person also wrote that just before leaving for the family’s fateful trip to Niagara Falls, Rona Amir Mohammad expressed surprise, to relatives abroad, at being included in Shafia’s vacation plans.
In an interview he gave to The Gazette shortly after the deaths, Mohammed Shafia said his family was originally from Afghanistan – where it is legal for a man to have more than one wife – and that they moved to Dubai in the 1990s. They came to Canada two years ago and moved into a duplex in St. Léonard.
Much about Shafia is steeped in mystery and confusion. His family named is spelled as Shafia on his permanent resident card and on several legal documents, including the murder indictment filed against him in Kingston Thursday. However, media interviews weeks ago, he he has given the spellings Shafii and Shafee. When he appeared before a judge in Kingston Thursday, he appeared to be confused about his birth date.
Yahya and Shafia required the services of a Farsi interpreter for the brief hearing. When both spoke to The Gazette this month they had difficulty speaking either English or French.
All three of the accused were ordered to remain detained. The next date in the case is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Yahya looked around the courtroom when she entered the prisoners dock. She gave a quick smile and waved to a family friend seated at the front of the audience section.
Her 18-year-old son showed no emotion when he appeared. He shrugged at some of the formal questions posed to him in court. But afterward, when he was about to be led away from the courthouse in an unmarked police car, he kept his eyes fixed on his mother, who was in a minivan parked nearby, until both vehicles drove away.
Kingston police refused to comment on the possibility the killings were carried out as so-called honour killings. However, Chief Steven Tanner began the news conference by describing the deaths as a “senseless and needless loss of innocent life. The four victims in this case, three of which were teenage girls, all shared the rights within our great country to live without fear, to enjoy safety and security and to exercise freedom of choice and expression, and yet had their lives cut short by their own family.”
When later asked to elaborate on the statement, Tanner said he could not because the case is now before the courts.
“That will form a part of the ongoing investigation. There are family members in various parts of the world, and our investigators will be following up with them,” Tanner said, adding he also received an email “from someone claiming to be” part of the family and who alleged the deaths were so-called honour killings.
Kingston police did say they completely disbelieve the theory Shafia and Yahya presented for how the Nissan Sentra might have ended up in the canal.
The car was discovered submerged in the Rideau Canal on June 30, at around 9:30 a.m. It was in front of the northernmost lock wall of the Kingston Mills Locks. From the licence plate police learned that the car was from Quebec and registered to the elder Shafia, and prepared to track him down.
But at around 12:30 p.m. the same day, Shafia showed up at Kingston police headquarters to report that his Sentra was missing, along with three of his daughters – Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17 and Geeti, 13, – and Rona Amir Mohammad, who he described to police as his cousin. In actuality, she is his first wife, Kingston police Inspector Brian Begbie said.
Begbie said several “cultural issues” have made the investigation difficult.
“They will certainly be explained at length (during the trial),” Begbie said.
When the father reported the disappearance, he was accompanied by Yahya and their oldest son, Hamed, who acted mostly as an interpreter. While they were at police headquarters, all three were informed of the discovery at the locks. It was then that all three began to claim that Zainab often liked to take the Sentra out for a drive without permission. Yahya and her husband later told the same story to several media outlets, including The Gazette.
Begbie said investigators now believe this “particular allegation is false,” and that the Sentra was operated by all three accused shortly before the four women were killed.
The family had stopped to stay at a hotel late on June 29 in Kingston. Hamed Shafia is believed to have driven the family’s other vehicle, a Lexus SUV, to Montreal and then returned to Kingston after the Sentra was discovered.
Begbie said investigators have evidence that places both the Sentra and the Lexus at the locks before the Sentra was reported missing.
They also say evidence also places all three murder suspects were at the locks before the women were killed.
Kingston police refused to divulge how the four victims died.
All three suspects were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday. Police denied a report that they were arrested as they were heading to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Police did say, however, that one of the suspects appeared to be preparing to flee the country. Tanner said he was not sure where the suspect was heading, but did say there were concerns it was to a country that does not share an extradition treaty with Canada.
Yahya and Shafia have three other surviving children besides Hamed. All three are currently under the care of Quebec’s youth protection services, police said.
Joyce Gilbert, who lived downstairs from the Shafias, said Thursday she has known the family since they moved into the area about three years ago.
Gilbert said she never suspected Shafia had two wives, but instead thought Rona Amid Mohammad was a close family friend or relative because she lived with the Shafias.
Gilbert, who knew the slain girls well because she worked at their school, described the sisters as very good students.
She wiped away tears as she spoke of seeing them “almost every day.”
“They were very reserved, shy, very polite,” Gilbert said. “When I would come from the grocery store, they would run over and ask: ‘Do you want me to help you?’ Always.”
Gilbert said she never saw any indications of domestic abuse.
“I just hope that the rest of the kids will get psychiatric help. They’re really going to need it.”
Shafia has said he’s having a house built in Brossard. The property is reportedly worth $900,000.
In Brossard Thursday, members of the Afghan community expressed shock at the news.
“I can’t understand that,” said Abdul Mubain, the owner of a cleaning service who came to Canada from Afghanistan 15 years ago.
“To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don’t know what,” he added.
pcherry@thegazette.canwest.com
Terrine Friday and Marian Scott of The Gazette contributed to this report
This article was found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Afghan+community+shocked+arrests/1816807/story.html
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Montreal Gazette - July 24, 2009
'To kill your own child, you must be crazy'
“Why? Why? Why?”
Abdul Mubain shook his head in bafflement as he shopped for flatbread in an Afghan grocery store in Brossard.
Montreal’s 5,000-member Afghan community was reeling Thursday at news that a St. Léonard couple and their 18-year-old son are alleged to have murdered four household members.
Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed Shafia face murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, and of Rona Amir Mohammad, 50. All four were found dead last month in car submerged in the Rideau Canal, near Kingston.
“I can’t understand that,” said Mubain, the owner of a cleaning service who came to Canada from Afghanistan 15 years ago.
“To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don’t know what,” he added.
Some news media were quick to compare the slayings to “honour killings” – the practice of murdering family members considered to have brought shame on the family name.
Kingston police refused to comment on whether the murders were honour killings, but described them as a “needless loss of innocent life.”
Community members also condemned the slayings as a senseless tragedy.
“We are really sad,” said Makai Aref, director of the Afghan Women’s Association of Montreal. “Nobody understands what happened.”
Mohammad Shafia, who was building a lavish house in Brossard, often shopped at the Kohinoor grocery store, said a co-owner who spoke on condition that his name not be used.
Shafia was always alone when he dropped in to buy fresh-baked bread.
“He seemed like a nice guy.”
The co-owner’s brother, who also works in the store, said if the deaths were honour killings, they had nothing to do with Afghan values.
“It’s the man who is crazy, not the culture,” he said. “To kill your own children, that’s incredible.”
Alia Hogben, executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, cautioned against branding the deaths as honour killings.
“I’m really hesitant to use that term,” she said.
“We need to remember this is murder, and nothing should distract from that.”
Violence against women is endemic in societies where men wield control over women’s lives, she said. However, she pointed out that patriarchal thinking is not limited to the Middle East and Asia.
“There are Canadian men who stalk and intimidate their wives and commit murder. Is that an honour killing?”
To attribute violence against women to cultural factors might appear to condone it, she added.
“I think we should look at it as a tragedy. The acts are immoral and reprehensible and should be dealt with as murder.”
Adeema Niazi, executive director of the Toronto-based Afghan Women’s Organization, agreed that it would be a mistake to attribute the tragedy to cultural factors.
“I cannot say it is part of the culture. Violence is not part of any culture.”
Kingston police confirmed that Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, and that he was also married to Yahya.
Niazi said polygamy is allowed under Islamic law under certain conditions, such as when a first wife is childless.
However, some men in positions of power take advantage of the fact that enforcement of those conditions is lax in Afghanistan, she said.
Journalist Sally Armstrong, author of Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan’s Women, said violence against women must be condemned no matter how it is labelled.
“I think it would be dangerous for me or for anybody to jump in and say, ‘This is an honour killing,’ ” she said.
Whether family violence or a so-called honour killing, violence against women exists everywhere, she said.
“Wife assault is against the law, but it still happens.”
A 2006 survey showed that 86 per cent of Afghans oppose polygamy, she said.
By whatever name, crimes against women are unacceptable, she said.
“Someone once said to me, ‘In Canada, you call it crimes of passion. Here, we call it honour killing.’
“It’s neither: It’s femicide.’ ”
This article was found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/kill+your+child+must+crazy/1822198/story.html
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National Post - Canwest News Service Canada July 24, 2009
Family's plans to murder daughters, first wife hatched months before: police
by Paul Cherry and Natalie Alcoba, Canwest News Service
KINGSTON/TORONTO -- The suspicious circumstances that led to a car, carrying the bodies of three sisters and their father's first wife, being submerged in the Rideau Canal began to unravel on Thursday, amid allegations of an unfathomable scenario where the girls' parents and brother conspired in a premeditated murder.
Conspiracy charges filed at the Kingston courthouse on Thursday reveal investigators believe plans to commit the murders were hatched as far back as May 1.
The small detail in the indictment added yet another twist in a tragic story that appears to border on the bizarre -- including tearful displays of mourning by those who are now accused of murder, allegations from relatives that it may all have been over honour, and a revelation that the adult initially described as a cousin was actually a first wife.
The bodies of Zainab Shafia, 19, her sisters Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, and 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad were pulled from a Nissan Sentra on June 30, after the car was discovered in the canal near the Kingston Mills Locks. Police refuse to disclose how they died.
Mohammad Shafia, 56, his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 39, and their eldest son, Hamed Shafia, 18, all of Montreal, are charged with four counts each of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Police said on Thursday they treated the case as suspicious from day one, even as the apparently distraught parents presented another theory to reporters - that the deaths were the end to a foolish joy ride spearheaded by the eldest daughter, who did not know how to drive but liked to take the car out for a spin without permission.
Police called that scenario false on Thursday and alleged that the three accused were the ones operating the Nissan the night of the deaths. Investigators say they have evidence to link them and a second family vehicle, a Lexus, to the locks.
In a Kingston courtroom on Thursday, Ms. Yahya gave a quick smile to a family friend seated at the front of the audience section and waved.
Her 18-year-old son displayed no emotion in the courtroom, but when he was later led away from the courthouse in an unmarked police car he fixed his eyes on his mother, who was in a minivan parked nearby. Mr. Shafia appeared confused when asked about his birthdate.
All three of the accused were ordered to remain detained.
A relative of the couple has told reporters she believes the murders were carried out as so-called honour killings, but police refused to comment on a possible motive.
"Some of us have different core beliefs, different family values, different sets of rules; certainly these individuals, in particular the three teenagers, were Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians," Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said at a press conference on Thursday. "Whether that was a part of a motive within the family - based on one of the girls' or more of the girls' behaviour - is open to a little bit of speculation, but combined with other investigative issues as well."
Kingston police confirmed on Thursday that Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia's first wife, and that he was also married to Ms. Yahya. A relative who sent an anonymous e-mail to the Montreal Gazette alleged that Mr. Shafia was "disgraced" by his daughters' behaviour in Canada, and that he wanted his first wife to return to Canada while hiding the fact they were married. The author of the e-mail said Mr. Shafia married Ms. Yahya as his second wife, because Ms. Mohammad could not have children.
In an interview conducted shortly after the deaths, Mohammad Shafia said his family was originally from Afghanistan, where it is legal for a man to have more than one wife, and that they moved to Dubai in the 1990s. They came to Canada two years ago and moved into a duplex in the northeast end of Montreal. His family name is spelled Shafia on his permanent resident card and on several legal documents, including the murder indictment filed against him on Thursday. However, during an interview weeks ago, he claimed the correct spelling is Shafii.
Kingston police were able to say they completely disbelieve Mr. Shafia and Ms. Yahya's theory of how the car might have ended up in the canal.
The Nissan Sentra was discovered in front of the northernmost lock wall of the Kingston Mills Locks, the vehicle's front facing the wall. Police learned from the licence plate that the car was from Quebec and was registered to Mr. Shafia and prepared to track him down.
But around 12:30 p.m. the same day, Mr. Shafia showed up at Kingston police headquarters to report that his Sentra was missing, along with three of his daughters and Ms. Mohammad, whom he described as his cousin. Joyce Gilbert, who lived downstairs from the Shafias, said she never suspected Mr. Shafia had two wives, but instead thought Ms. Mohammad was a close family friend or relative because she lived with the family.
All three suspects were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday. The police denied a report that they were heading to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport at the time. They did say, however, that one of the suspects appeared to be preparing to flee to another country.
Yahya and Shafia have three other surviving children, besides Hamed. All three are currently under the care of Quebec's youth protection services, police said.
This article was found at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1820323
READ FOLLOW UP ARTICLES COVERING THE TRIAL OF THIS CASE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
Victim in multiple 'honour killings' attempted to marry just weeks before her murder
The father, mother and brother of three teenage girls from Montreal whose bodies were found in a submerged car in a Kingston, Ont., canal were charged Thursday with killing them and a woman believed to be the father's first wife.
Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13, were found dead last month along with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock near Kingston.
Parents Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yehya and their son Hamid Mohammad Shafia, 18, have each been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to murder, Insp. Brian Begbie announced at a news conference at Kingston Police headquarters on Thursday.
The three, who live in the Montreal neighbourhood of St. Léonard, are being held in custody in Kingston while waiting for bail hearings.
This photo taken in the 1980s is said to show the wedding of Rona Amir Mohammed, left, and Mohammad Shafia, centre, in Afghanistan. The photo was sent to the media by email by a purported family member. (Canadian Press) The submerged black Nissan Sentra was discovered around 12:30 p.m. on June 30, the same day Mohammad Shafia went to the Kingston Police station to report that his daughters and a woman he said at the time was his cousin were missing, along with his vehicle. He was accompanied by his wife and son, said police.
Begbie said investigators have "cause to believe" the older woman found in the car was, in fact, Mohammad Shafia's first wife.
Police said that by the time the bodies were discovered, they had been in the water for as long as 12 hours.
The car's front end was up against the lock wall as if the vehicle had plunged in backward.
The father told police he discovered his car was missing after the family had stopped at a Kingston motel following a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont., the day before. The family had been travelling in two vehicles.
When they were told about the discovery of the submerged car, police said all three suspects spoke about their trip to Niagara Falls and Zainab's habit of taking the car without consent and without a driver's licence, a claim police say is untrue.
"Our investigation to date reveals that this allegation is false and that on the night in question, the Nissan was operated by a combination of the three accused persons," said Begbie.
Girls lived as 'Canadian teenagers'
The three Shafia sisters are seen in an undated family photo. (CBC) Police also said the son drove the family's second vehicle to Montreal in the early-morning hours of June 30 and returned to Kingston to accompany his parents to the police station. The couple have three more children — two daughters and a son — now in care of youth protection services in Montreal.
Both vehicles — the submerged Nissan and a Lexus SUV — are being examined by police, said Begbie.
Police said they are looking into whether the deaths were an "honour killing" — a tribal custom practiced in some parts of the world in which the majority of victims are women who are perceived to have brought shame to their family.
Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said he received an email from someone who is likely a relative of the family who claimed it was such a killing.
"That will form a part of the ongoing investigation," said Tanner. "There are family members in a variety of parts of the world and investigators will be following up with them.
"Whether that was a part of the motive within the family, based on one ... or more of the girls' behaviour is open to a little bit of speculation."
Tanner said the girls were living as "Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians."
Tarek Fatah, radio talk show host and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Tanner made a "very clear reference" to honour killings during the news conference when he discussed freedom of expression and the choices that young women in Canada, as Canadian citizens, have.
Mother 'distraught,' says lawyer
Yehya's lawyer, Lucie Joncas, told reporters outside court that the mother is grieving for her children.
"It's obvious my client is very emotionally distraught by the whole tragedy," Joncas said.
Waice Ferdoussi, who represents Shafia, said that his client was "very surprised" he was arrested and that they were a "close family."
"These are very severe charges, not a joke," he added.
The family, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, spent 15 years in Dubai before moving to Montreal two years ago.
Tanner said other police agencies, including the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, as well as Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto police forces, were involved in the investigation.
This article was found at:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/23/canal-arrests023.html
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The Montreal Gazette - July 24, 2009
Family charged in possible honour killings of Montreal women in Kingston
KINGSTON – A St. Léonard couple allegedly began making plans to kill their three daughters, along with the husband’s first wife, weeks before the bodies of all four victims were found in a car submerged in the Rideau Canal.
Mohammad Shafia, 56, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 39, and their eldest son, Hamed Shafia, 18, all face first-degree murder charges in the deaths, which came to light last month after a Nissan Sentra was discovered in the canal near the Kingston Mills Locks. Conspiracy charges filed at the Kingston courthouse Thursday reveal investigators believe plans to commit the killings were hatched as far back as May 1, long before the family travelled to Niagara Falls. The deaths occurred during the return trip to Montreal.
The couple and their son face four counts each of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
The small detail about conspiracy in the indictment added yet another twist in a story that becomes stranger at each turn.
A relative of the couple has told reporters she believes the murders were carried out as so-called honour killings. Kingston police confirmed Thursday that 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, and that he was also married to Yahya. A person claiming to be a relative sent an anonymous email to The Gazette alleging that Shafia was “disgraced” by his daughters’ behaviour in Canada and that he wanted his first wife to return to Afghanistan while hiding the fact they were married. The author of the email said Shafia married Yahya as his second wife because Mohammad could not have children. The person also wrote that just before leaving for the family’s fateful trip to Niagara Falls, Rona Amir Mohammad expressed surprise, to relatives abroad, at being included in Shafia’s vacation plans.
In an interview he gave to The Gazette shortly after the deaths, Mohammed Shafia said his family was originally from Afghanistan – where it is legal for a man to have more than one wife – and that they moved to Dubai in the 1990s. They came to Canada two years ago and moved into a duplex in St. Léonard.
Much about Shafia is steeped in mystery and confusion. His family named is spelled as Shafia on his permanent resident card and on several legal documents, including the murder indictment filed against him in Kingston Thursday. However, media interviews weeks ago, he he has given the spellings Shafii and Shafee. When he appeared before a judge in Kingston Thursday, he appeared to be confused about his birth date.
Yahya and Shafia required the services of a Farsi interpreter for the brief hearing. When both spoke to The Gazette this month they had difficulty speaking either English or French.
All three of the accused were ordered to remain detained. The next date in the case is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Yahya looked around the courtroom when she entered the prisoners dock. She gave a quick smile and waved to a family friend seated at the front of the audience section.
Her 18-year-old son showed no emotion when he appeared. He shrugged at some of the formal questions posed to him in court. But afterward, when he was about to be led away from the courthouse in an unmarked police car, he kept his eyes fixed on his mother, who was in a minivan parked nearby, until both vehicles drove away.
Kingston police refused to comment on the possibility the killings were carried out as so-called honour killings. However, Chief Steven Tanner began the news conference by describing the deaths as a “senseless and needless loss of innocent life. The four victims in this case, three of which were teenage girls, all shared the rights within our great country to live without fear, to enjoy safety and security and to exercise freedom of choice and expression, and yet had their lives cut short by their own family.”
When later asked to elaborate on the statement, Tanner said he could not because the case is now before the courts.
“That will form a part of the ongoing investigation. There are family members in various parts of the world, and our investigators will be following up with them,” Tanner said, adding he also received an email “from someone claiming to be” part of the family and who alleged the deaths were so-called honour killings.
Kingston police did say they completely disbelieve the theory Shafia and Yahya presented for how the Nissan Sentra might have ended up in the canal.
The car was discovered submerged in the Rideau Canal on June 30, at around 9:30 a.m. It was in front of the northernmost lock wall of the Kingston Mills Locks. From the licence plate police learned that the car was from Quebec and registered to the elder Shafia, and prepared to track him down.
But at around 12:30 p.m. the same day, Shafia showed up at Kingston police headquarters to report that his Sentra was missing, along with three of his daughters – Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17 and Geeti, 13, – and Rona Amir Mohammad, who he described to police as his cousin. In actuality, she is his first wife, Kingston police Inspector Brian Begbie said.
Begbie said several “cultural issues” have made the investigation difficult.
“They will certainly be explained at length (during the trial),” Begbie said.
When the father reported the disappearance, he was accompanied by Yahya and their oldest son, Hamed, who acted mostly as an interpreter. While they were at police headquarters, all three were informed of the discovery at the locks. It was then that all three began to claim that Zainab often liked to take the Sentra out for a drive without permission. Yahya and her husband later told the same story to several media outlets, including The Gazette.
Begbie said investigators now believe this “particular allegation is false,” and that the Sentra was operated by all three accused shortly before the four women were killed.
The family had stopped to stay at a hotel late on June 29 in Kingston. Hamed Shafia is believed to have driven the family’s other vehicle, a Lexus SUV, to Montreal and then returned to Kingston after the Sentra was discovered.
Begbie said investigators have evidence that places both the Sentra and the Lexus at the locks before the Sentra was reported missing.
They also say evidence also places all three murder suspects were at the locks before the women were killed.
Kingston police refused to divulge how the four victims died.
All three suspects were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday. Police denied a report that they were arrested as they were heading to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Police did say, however, that one of the suspects appeared to be preparing to flee the country. Tanner said he was not sure where the suspect was heading, but did say there were concerns it was to a country that does not share an extradition treaty with Canada.
Yahya and Shafia have three other surviving children besides Hamed. All three are currently under the care of Quebec’s youth protection services, police said.
Joyce Gilbert, who lived downstairs from the Shafias, said Thursday she has known the family since they moved into the area about three years ago.
Gilbert said she never suspected Shafia had two wives, but instead thought Rona Amid Mohammad was a close family friend or relative because she lived with the Shafias.
Gilbert, who knew the slain girls well because she worked at their school, described the sisters as very good students.
She wiped away tears as she spoke of seeing them “almost every day.”
“They were very reserved, shy, very polite,” Gilbert said. “When I would come from the grocery store, they would run over and ask: ‘Do you want me to help you?’ Always.”
Gilbert said she never saw any indications of domestic abuse.
“I just hope that the rest of the kids will get psychiatric help. They’re really going to need it.”
Shafia has said he’s having a house built in Brossard. The property is reportedly worth $900,000.
In Brossard Thursday, members of the Afghan community expressed shock at the news.
“I can’t understand that,” said Abdul Mubain, the owner of a cleaning service who came to Canada from Afghanistan 15 years ago.
“To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don’t know what,” he added.
pcherry@thegazette.canwest.com
Terrine Friday and Marian Scott of The Gazette contributed to this report
This article was found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Afghan+community+shocked+arrests/1816807/story.html
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Montreal Gazette - July 24, 2009
'To kill your own child, you must be crazy'
“Why? Why? Why?”
Abdul Mubain shook his head in bafflement as he shopped for flatbread in an Afghan grocery store in Brossard.
Montreal’s 5,000-member Afghan community was reeling Thursday at news that a St. Léonard couple and their 18-year-old son are alleged to have murdered four household members.
Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed Shafia face murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, and of Rona Amir Mohammad, 50. All four were found dead last month in car submerged in the Rideau Canal, near Kingston.
“I can’t understand that,” said Mubain, the owner of a cleaning service who came to Canada from Afghanistan 15 years ago.
“To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don’t know what,” he added.
Some news media were quick to compare the slayings to “honour killings” – the practice of murdering family members considered to have brought shame on the family name.
Kingston police refused to comment on whether the murders were honour killings, but described them as a “needless loss of innocent life.”
Community members also condemned the slayings as a senseless tragedy.
“We are really sad,” said Makai Aref, director of the Afghan Women’s Association of Montreal. “Nobody understands what happened.”
Mohammad Shafia, who was building a lavish house in Brossard, often shopped at the Kohinoor grocery store, said a co-owner who spoke on condition that his name not be used.
Shafia was always alone when he dropped in to buy fresh-baked bread.
“He seemed like a nice guy.”
The co-owner’s brother, who also works in the store, said if the deaths were honour killings, they had nothing to do with Afghan values.
“It’s the man who is crazy, not the culture,” he said. “To kill your own children, that’s incredible.”
Alia Hogben, executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, cautioned against branding the deaths as honour killings.
“I’m really hesitant to use that term,” she said.
“We need to remember this is murder, and nothing should distract from that.”
Violence against women is endemic in societies where men wield control over women’s lives, she said. However, she pointed out that patriarchal thinking is not limited to the Middle East and Asia.
“There are Canadian men who stalk and intimidate their wives and commit murder. Is that an honour killing?”
To attribute violence against women to cultural factors might appear to condone it, she added.
“I think we should look at it as a tragedy. The acts are immoral and reprehensible and should be dealt with as murder.”
Adeema Niazi, executive director of the Toronto-based Afghan Women’s Organization, agreed that it would be a mistake to attribute the tragedy to cultural factors.
“I cannot say it is part of the culture. Violence is not part of any culture.”
Kingston police confirmed that Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, and that he was also married to Yahya.
Niazi said polygamy is allowed under Islamic law under certain conditions, such as when a first wife is childless.
However, some men in positions of power take advantage of the fact that enforcement of those conditions is lax in Afghanistan, she said.
Journalist Sally Armstrong, author of Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan’s Women, said violence against women must be condemned no matter how it is labelled.
“I think it would be dangerous for me or for anybody to jump in and say, ‘This is an honour killing,’ ” she said.
Whether family violence or a so-called honour killing, violence against women exists everywhere, she said.
“Wife assault is against the law, but it still happens.”
A 2006 survey showed that 86 per cent of Afghans oppose polygamy, she said.
By whatever name, crimes against women are unacceptable, she said.
“Someone once said to me, ‘In Canada, you call it crimes of passion. Here, we call it honour killing.’
“It’s neither: It’s femicide.’ ”
This article was found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/kill+your+child+must+crazy/1822198/story.html
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National Post - Canwest News Service Canada July 24, 2009
Family's plans to murder daughters, first wife hatched months before: police
by Paul Cherry and Natalie Alcoba, Canwest News Service
KINGSTON/TORONTO -- The suspicious circumstances that led to a car, carrying the bodies of three sisters and their father's first wife, being submerged in the Rideau Canal began to unravel on Thursday, amid allegations of an unfathomable scenario where the girls' parents and brother conspired in a premeditated murder.
Conspiracy charges filed at the Kingston courthouse on Thursday reveal investigators believe plans to commit the murders were hatched as far back as May 1.
The small detail in the indictment added yet another twist in a tragic story that appears to border on the bizarre -- including tearful displays of mourning by those who are now accused of murder, allegations from relatives that it may all have been over honour, and a revelation that the adult initially described as a cousin was actually a first wife.
The bodies of Zainab Shafia, 19, her sisters Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, and 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad were pulled from a Nissan Sentra on June 30, after the car was discovered in the canal near the Kingston Mills Locks. Police refuse to disclose how they died.
Mohammad Shafia, 56, his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 39, and their eldest son, Hamed Shafia, 18, all of Montreal, are charged with four counts each of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Police said on Thursday they treated the case as suspicious from day one, even as the apparently distraught parents presented another theory to reporters - that the deaths were the end to a foolish joy ride spearheaded by the eldest daughter, who did not know how to drive but liked to take the car out for a spin without permission.
Police called that scenario false on Thursday and alleged that the three accused were the ones operating the Nissan the night of the deaths. Investigators say they have evidence to link them and a second family vehicle, a Lexus, to the locks.
In a Kingston courtroom on Thursday, Ms. Yahya gave a quick smile to a family friend seated at the front of the audience section and waved.
Her 18-year-old son displayed no emotion in the courtroom, but when he was later led away from the courthouse in an unmarked police car he fixed his eyes on his mother, who was in a minivan parked nearby. Mr. Shafia appeared confused when asked about his birthdate.
All three of the accused were ordered to remain detained.
A relative of the couple has told reporters she believes the murders were carried out as so-called honour killings, but police refused to comment on a possible motive.
"Some of us have different core beliefs, different family values, different sets of rules; certainly these individuals, in particular the three teenagers, were Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians," Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said at a press conference on Thursday. "Whether that was a part of a motive within the family - based on one of the girls' or more of the girls' behaviour - is open to a little bit of speculation, but combined with other investigative issues as well."
Kingston police confirmed on Thursday that Rona Amir Mohammad was Mohammad Shafia's first wife, and that he was also married to Ms. Yahya. A relative who sent an anonymous e-mail to the Montreal Gazette alleged that Mr. Shafia was "disgraced" by his daughters' behaviour in Canada, and that he wanted his first wife to return to Canada while hiding the fact they were married. The author of the e-mail said Mr. Shafia married Ms. Yahya as his second wife, because Ms. Mohammad could not have children.
In an interview conducted shortly after the deaths, Mohammad Shafia said his family was originally from Afghanistan, where it is legal for a man to have more than one wife, and that they moved to Dubai in the 1990s. They came to Canada two years ago and moved into a duplex in the northeast end of Montreal. His family name is spelled Shafia on his permanent resident card and on several legal documents, including the murder indictment filed against him on Thursday. However, during an interview weeks ago, he claimed the correct spelling is Shafii.
Kingston police were able to say they completely disbelieve Mr. Shafia and Ms. Yahya's theory of how the car might have ended up in the canal.
The Nissan Sentra was discovered in front of the northernmost lock wall of the Kingston Mills Locks, the vehicle's front facing the wall. Police learned from the licence plate that the car was from Quebec and was registered to Mr. Shafia and prepared to track him down.
But around 12:30 p.m. the same day, Mr. Shafia showed up at Kingston police headquarters to report that his Sentra was missing, along with three of his daughters and Ms. Mohammad, whom he described as his cousin. Joyce Gilbert, who lived downstairs from the Shafias, said she never suspected Mr. Shafia had two wives, but instead thought Ms. Mohammad was a close family friend or relative because she lived with the family.
All three suspects were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday. The police denied a report that they were heading to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport at the time. They did say, however, that one of the suspects appeared to be preparing to flee to another country.
Yahya and Shafia have three other surviving children, besides Hamed. All three are currently under the care of Quebec's youth protection services, police said.
This article was found at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1820323
READ FOLLOW UP ARTICLES COVERING THE TRIAL OF THIS CASE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
Victim in multiple 'honour killings' attempted to marry just weeks before her murder
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