The One News Now website reports that a jury in Canada yesterday (January 29, 2012) found an Afghan father, his wife, and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what a judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."
The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder.
The three defendants declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainak, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammod, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.
The bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario. Prosecutors said the defendants killed the three sisters because they violated Islamic rules on dress, dating, and socializing. Shafia's co-wife was killed because the polygamous relationship with Shafia -- if known by Canadian authorities -- could have resulted in their deportation from Canada.
