Family guilty of quadruple honor killing

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KINGSTON, Ontario, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- An Afghan immigrant to Canada, his second wife and his son were convicted Sunday of the honor killings of his first wife and three daughters.

Mohammad Shafia, 59, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and Hamed Shafia were immediately given the mandatory life sentence with a minimum of 25 years without parole, the Toronto Star reported. Justice Robert Maranger, who presided over the lengthy trial in Kingston, Ontario, told them the so-called honor killings were "honorless."

"The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your twisted notion of honor, a notion of honor that is founded upon the domination and control of women, a sick notion of honor that has absolutely no place in any civilized society," the judge said.

The bodies of the victims were found in the Rideau Canal in June 2009.

During the trial, which began in October, witnesses said family had frequent arguments after they moved to Montreal in 2007. Shafia and his second wife and son objected to the other women's preference for Western clothing, music and boyfriends.

All three accused entered pleas of innocence at the beginning of the trial.

The night the car went into the canal, the family had stopped for the night on their way home from a visit to Niagara Falls.

Defense attorneys said there was no evidence of how the car ended up in the water and suggested one of the daughters, ages 19, 17 and 13, was driving the car without a license and accidentally went into the canal.