Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, were each found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence without any chance of parole for the first 25 years, by a jury on Sunday. Prosecutors said the defendants supposedly killed three sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, for dishonoring the family by rebelling against disciplinary rules on using the internet, socializing, dating, and dress attire. Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia’s first wife in a polygamous marriage, was killed for siding with the teenagers.
The bodies of the women were found on June 30, 2009, in a car inundated in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Prosecutors said this was a case of premeditated murder. The victims were drowned, their bodies were placed in a car, and then the car was pushed into the canal. Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said, “It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime. The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor…that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”
