Canadian Family Convicted of "Honor Murders"

A jury in Canada found a family guily of honor murders of four female relatives. Mohammed Shafia, the father of three of the victims; Tooba Mohammad Yahya, his wife; and Hamed, their son, were found guilty of first degree murder, for the deaths of Shafia's three daughters and his first wife in his polygamous marriage. All three of the perputrators were convicted to life in person, without the possibilty of parole for twenty- five years. The victims were found dead in a car, in the Rideau Canal in Kingston on June 30, 2009. The evidence for the case came from hours of wiretapped conversations, in which the court found discussions that pointed to the intentional killing of these women as honor murders. The tapes describe a desire to punish Shafia's three daughters for being rebellious and westernized (he referred to them as "whores") and his first wife for advocating the behavior. According to the findings of the case, Shafia ordered Hamed to run the car that the women were driving off the road and into the Canal. Invistigators also believe that the women may have been dead before hitting the water, because they did not escape, even though their seat belts were off and they were only in seven feet of water. CNN describes the murders as honor murders, as opposed to honor killings, as they find that honor killings does not describe what happened in this case.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/29/world/americas/canada-honor-murder/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

Kathleen Tite