Public Safety Minister speaks on Shafia trial

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says Canadian law was applied in a fair and even-handed manner at the Shafia murder trial.

He says yesterday’s guilty verdicts against Afghan-born Mohammad Shafia, his son Hamed and his wife Tooba Yahya do not reflect badly on Muslims.

Toews says the verdicts make it very clear that cultural differences that are crimes, like honour killings, will be prosecuted in Canada.

The three are looking at life in prison for at least 25 years for the killings of the family’s three teenage daughters and Shafia’s first wife in a polygamous relationship.

The jury found each defendant guilty of four counts of first-degree murder — offences that carry an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Prosecutors alleged the daughters died because they defied the family’s rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online.

Judge Robert Maranger says the killers were motivated by their “twisted concept of honour.”

The three remained defiant after the verdict, calling the jury’s decision unjust.

The lead investigator in the Shafia murder case, Detective Sergeant Chris Scott, praised Crown lawyers for allowing the four victims to finally be heard.

Scott says the lawyers gave the four women a voice.

But Shafia’s lawyer, Peter Kemp, says he believes comments his client made on wiretaps calling his dead daughters whores may have moved the jury more than physical evidence.

Kemp says Shafia wasn’t convicted for what he did, he was convicted for what he said.

Hamed’s lawyer, Patrick McCann, says he’s disappointed with the verdict and says his client will appeal — and he believes the other two will as well.

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