‘I am not normal,’ Peer Khairi told police after alleged honour killing

Megan O'Toole | Oct 18, 2012 8:05 PM ET | Last Updated: Oct 18, 2012 8:14 PM ET
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Alex Tavshunsky for National Post Peer Khairi has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife Randjida by stabbing her many times in the throat and neck with two knives, but admitted to inflicting the wounds. 

 

Hours after he butchered his wife inside their Etobicoke home, Peer Khairi shuffled into a Toronto police interrogation room clad in a white, jail-issued biohazard suit and declared: “I don’t know anything about the law in this country.”

It was an apt statement for a man who had just cut a gash in his wife’s throat so long and deep that it severed her voicebox, nearly decapitating her. Randjida Khairi died in the spring of 2008, a crime allegedly motivated by her husband’s perverse notions of Muslim honour.

When he spoke to police hours later, Mr. Khairi had already surrendered his clothes to forensic investigators, and his papery one-piece biohazard suit rustled as he shifted in his seat.

“I can’t talk anything. I am not normal,” he said through a Dari interpreter as Det.-Sgt. Michael Barsky explained his right to remain silent. The video was played for an Ontario Superior Court jury Thursday at Mr. Khairi’s second-degree murder trial. “My brain is not working.”

As police struggled to communicate with Mr. Khairi through his interpreter’s broken English, the accused repeatedly broached his unfamiliarity with Canadian law and explained that he was taking several medications, including “one for my psychotic.”

He could not name the associated mental illness, saying only that “the gas from the stomach affects your brain to operate properly.” Asked what would happen if he failed to take the drug, Mr. Khairi — who was recovering at the time from a recent car accident in which he said his brain “just got out of my head and just came back inside” — responded: “I cannot think properly.”

Whenever Det.-Sgt. Barsky attempted to steer the conversation toward his slain wife, however, Mr. Khairi clammed up.

“I cannot say anything without my lawyer right now. I’m fainting. I’m getting the sweat,” Mr. Khairi said, shifting in his seat.
 
“Because you’re upset,” Det.-Sgt. Barsky suggested.

“No, I’m not upset. It is because I didn’t eat and also I didn’t take my medication,” Mr. Khairi responded.

Det.-Sgt. Barsky asked about the 911 call Mr. Khairi had placed hours earlier, in which he told the operator his wife was dead, and warned he may kill again if police did not arrive swiftly. Mr. Khairi, who spoke through a different interpreter during the 911 call, disputed the translation.

“No, I didn’t say, no… I said come fast [or] something will happen to me and I could destroy me… I would have maybe jumped somewhere, like fall top to bottom,” said Mr. Khairi, 65.

Later in the interview, Mr. Khairi contradicted another aspect of the 911 call, saying he did not know his wife had died of her injuries until Det.-Sgt. Barsky apprised him.

The officer went on to ask about Mr. Khairi’s children; the accused quickly recounted the ages of his two sons, 32 and 20 at the time, but stalled when asked about his four daughters. One of them was 18, he said.
“The rest, I don’t know. Read their IDs and find out,” Mr. Khairi said.

I cannot say anything without my lawyer right now. I’m fainting. I’m getting the sweat

Mr. Khairi’s attitude toward his wife and children has been a central theme in the two-week trial, with the Crown alleging he killed Ms. Khairi in a frenzy of stab wounds, enraged by her willingness to adopt Canadian values and to allow their six children to do the same. The defence acknowledges Mr. Khairi inflicted the fatal wounds, but denies he had the necessary state of mind for murder.

Earlier Thursday, the court heard from Gulaly Nawabi, a mental-health support worker with the Afghan Women’s Organization, which helps new immigrants settle into Canadian life. After Ms. Khairi’s case was referred to her, Ms. Nawabi contacted the slight, frail woman to offer support.
“She said, ‘I will call you when I need you,’” Ms. Nawabi testified.

Ms. Khairi, who threw out a handful of lifelines in the months before she died, ultimately did get in touch with Ms. Nawabi, who recorded more than a dozen telephone conversations and visits with the family during 2007 and 2008.

Sometimes, their discussions entirely skirted the personal; the Khairis were on social assistance and required help with practical day-to-day matters. Other times, Ms. Khairi spoke of her growing despair.

“She was under emotional pressure. She felt isolated,” Ms. Nawabi recalled, citing a conversation in May 2007.

The next month, Ms. Nawabi visited the victim at her Etobicoke home. Ms. Khairi had just returned from hospital after intentionally overdosing on prescription drugs, the court heard.

“She said, ‘Life is very stressful for me… I want to kill myself,’” Ms. Nawabi testified.
Later, Ms. Nawabi met with the victim’s husband, telling him the family needed his “love and support.” In return, Mr. Khairi opened up about his own problems.

“He had problems with his wife,” Ms. Nawabi recalled, noting the accused was also discouraged by his inability to speak English and to find a job. “He is not satisfied with his life, himself, and the way his kids dress.”

In January 2008, Ms. Khairi called Ms. Nawabi to tell her she wanted to go to a friend’s house for a few days, “just for a break.” The victim phoned again, days later, upset that her husband had come to the friend’s house to bring her back home.

Ms. Nawabi’s last conversation with Ms. Khairi occurred on March 16, 2008, the jury heard.
“She said that, ‘I want to leave home and I want to live alone,’” Ms. Nawabi testified.

The record of that conversation never made it into Ms. Khairi’s file. Two days later, she was dead.
The trial resumes Friday.

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