Trial continues for Kingston family
Posted Nov 22, 2011 06:15:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was the most tragic of love stories. One that was not featured in a novel or a movie, but very real for Zainab Shafia and her high school sweetheart.
Shafia’s parents and brother have been charged with her alleged ‘honour killing’ and the deaths of her two sisters and her father’s first wife. Their bodies were found in a submerged car in the Rideau Canal Locks near Kingston two years ago.
The court heard from a young man who can’t be identified that back in 2008 he sent Zainab a Valentine’s Day card while attending a Montreal high school.
Zainab, in return emailed the young man with “rules of friendship,” as to not be discovered by her younger brother, Hamed.
Zainab’s younger brother eventually discovered their relationship, and kept her home from school to prevent any contact between them.
After a year apart, Zainab contacted the young man and they began to secretly rekindle their relationship. They began to meet again and Zainab told the young man she wanted to marry him, but he said they would need to wait until he was financially stable.
The court also heard how the young woman had gone to a women’s shelter and cut off contact with most of her family.
At one point her father called police, and said the young man had kidnapped his daughter.
The trial continues Tuesday.
