Afghan immigrant found guilty of murder in honour killing of wife in Toronto
Handouts
Police interview Peer Khairi (in
white jumpsuit) after he slit his wife's throat, allegedly for standing
up to him and letting their children live as Westerners.
An Afghan immigrant who slit his
wife’s throat, allegedly to preserve the family’s Muslim honour, has
been found guilty of second-degree murder.
Peer Khairi, 65, stood quietly as the jury foreman handed down the verdict in a downtown Toronto courthouse Sunday.
Randjida Khairi died on March 18, 2008, her throat cut so deeply that she was almost decapitated.
The Superior Court jury deliberated for three full days after hearing a month of evidence in the trial, including testimony from Khairi himself, who provided bizarre and contradictory accounts of the crime.
In urging jurors to find the accused guilty of second-degree murder, the Crown relied on a handful of witnesses who spoke of Khairi’s growing rage in the years after his family immigrated to Canada in 2003.
Originally from Afghanistan, they lived in India for more than a decade before relocating to Toronto.
Khairi became furious, the court heard, as his wife became aware of her entitlement to equal rights, and as his children drifted from traditional Muslim values and dress.
But the defence flatly rejected the honour-killing theory, portraying Khairi as a “pathetic,” mentally ill man who snapped when his diminutive wife unleashed a torrent of insults and lunged at him with a knife.
The defence had called for a lesser manslaughter conviction.
National Post
Peer Khairi, 65, stood quietly as the jury foreman handed down the verdict in a downtown Toronto courthouse Sunday.
Randjida Khairi died on March 18, 2008, her throat cut so deeply that she was almost decapitated.
The Superior Court jury deliberated for three full days after hearing a month of evidence in the trial, including testimony from Khairi himself, who provided bizarre and contradictory accounts of the crime.
In urging jurors to find the accused guilty of second-degree murder, the Crown relied on a handful of witnesses who spoke of Khairi’s growing rage in the years after his family immigrated to Canada in 2003.
Originally from Afghanistan, they lived in India for more than a decade before relocating to Toronto.
Khairi became furious, the court heard, as his wife became aware of her entitlement to equal rights, and as his children drifted from traditional Muslim values and dress.
But the defence flatly rejected the honour-killing theory, portraying Khairi as a “pathetic,” mentally ill man who snapped when his diminutive wife unleashed a torrent of insults and lunged at him with a knife.
The defence had called for a lesser manslaughter conviction.
National Post
Labels: Canada, Crime, culture, Heritage, Human Relations, Justice
posted by Pieface @ 10:04 AM
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