Honour important to Shafia, brother testifies at family murder trial
Posted Jan 17, 2012 03:30:47 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
KINGSTON, Ont. – The sibling of a man accused of killing half his family says honour is very important to his brother.
Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, are on trial in Kingston, Ont., charged with four counts each of first-degree murder.
They’ve pleaded not guilty in the deaths of Shafia and Yahya’s daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia’s first wife in a polygamous marriage.
Shafia’s half-brother, Dr. Mohammad Anwar Yaqubi, testifying in Shafia’s defence today, said under cross-examination that honour is very important to Shafia, but that the definition of honour is subjective.
In one of several outbursts in which he vehemently asserted his brother is innocent, Yaqubi said it’s the police and prosecutors who should be in prison for doing this to Shafia and his family.
Yaqubi also says his brother must have called the girls “whores” on intercepts because he was in shock and grieving.