Pre-trial motions start Tuesday in the case of a Montreal family who are accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the deaths of four female relatives in June 2009 in Kingston, Ont.
Mohammad Shafia, 57, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 40, and their son Hamed, 19, face four counts each of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy.
They are accused of killing three members of their family, teenage sisters, and Shafia’s first wife.
The bodies of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, Shafia’s first wife, were found in a submerged Nissan Sentra near the Kingston Mills Locks June 30, 2009.
the mother, father and son were arrested in Montreal on July 22, 2009. They have been in custody ever since.
The family is of Afghan origin, but had lived in Dubai for many years before establishing their home in the St. Léonard district of Montreal in 2007.
The victims and the accused had all been returning to Montreal from a visit to Niagara Falls.
Relatives of the husband’s first wife have contended that the deaths were so-called honour killings, or slayings for what is deemed immoral behaviour.
The Shafias speak Farsi, a dialect of Persian, and so to provide translation of testimony to the defendants and their family members who may be in the audience, a courtroom at the Ontario Court of justice building on Court St. in Kingston has been transformed into a technological hub, with instant translation through headsets in Farsi, English and French.
Spectators are given and wireless receiver units that provide the audio feed from the interpreters.
The pre-trial hearing is expected to last a month. The actual trial is reportedly scheduled for April 18, 2011 and is expected to last three months.
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