By IANS,
Toronto : In a case of honour killing in the Canadian capital Ottawa, a 23-year-old man was jailed for life Saturday for killing his sister and her fiance over three years ago.
Hasibullah Sadiqi had shot dead his sister Khatera, 20, and Feroz Mangal, 23, in September 2006.
The provocation for the murder was Khatera’s decision to live with Mangal’s family before her wedding.
Considering this as a blot on his Afghan family’s reputation, Sadiqi shot Khatera and Mangal while they were sitting in her car.
While Khatera died on the spot, Mangal succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.
In pronouncing his verdict Saturday, the trial judge blamed Sadiqi’s “twisted sense of values” for the murder of his sister and her future husband.
“You put your own self-esteem over those of your own sister and the young man she had chosen to become her life partner,” said Judge Douglas Rutherford as Sadiqi heard the verdict without emotion.
“Consigning them to partnership in death has shocked and bewildered every community in the nation’s capital. The forfeiture of your liberty for the rest of your life seems only just,” the judge said, sentencing him on two counts of first-degree murder.
Before the judge delivered his verdict, prosecution lawyer Mark Moors said Sadiqi committed the gruesome crime with “the sole purpose of restoring the family’s reputation and respect in the Afghan community”.
During the trial, Sadiqi admitted that he killed his sister and her fiance because he was outraged by her decision to live with Mangal’s family before her marriage.
He said he was innocent as he committed the crime when he was “out of control” and didn’t know that the gun was loaded.
Sadiqi, whose family came to Canada from Afghanistan, will spend 25 years in jail before he becomes eligible for parole.
This is the one of the many high-profile cases of ‘honour killing’ among South Asians in Canada.
In June 2000, Jassi Sidhu, a Canadian-born beautician, was murdered in Punjab where she had secretly married a poor driver of low caste from her mother’s village.
The gunmen were hired by Jassi’s mother and uncle in Canada.
In 2004, another Punjabi man in British Columbia province killed his 17-year-old daughter for her decision to live with her white boyfriend.
In 2007, a Pakistani cab driver killed his 16-year-old daughter for not wearing hijab.