KINGSTON, Ont. — After a lengthy and withering cross-examination during which he was accused of conspiring with his family to fabricate alibis, a surviving son of a couple accused of killing three of their daughters finished his court testimony by asking for a hug.
The son of the Montreal couple, who are accused along with their other son of committing so-called honour killings, testified this week for the defence at the Shafia family murder trial and was subject to more than a full day of cross-examination.
Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis suggested that the son, who can’t be named due to a court order, has lied to and manipulated authority figures in the past and may not have been telling the truth on the stand, saying his memory seems to be selectively improving to remember only details that help his parents and brother.
Tooba Yahya, 42, and her husband Mohammad Shafia, 58, are charged alongside their eldest son, Hamed, 20, with four counts of first-degree murder. They have each pleaded not guilty.
They’re accused of killing Shafia sisters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia’s other wife in a polygamous marriage, over family honour.
At the end of the surviving son’s third day on the stand, defence lawyer Peter Kemp, who called the him to testify, re-examined him Wednesday morning. Though much was suggested by Laarhuis, it was the son who raised a suggestion that he was involved in the actual deaths.
“You’ve been cross-examined quite extensively by Mr. Laarhuis with respect to a conspiracy or an agreement to fabricate evidence or make up evidence ... to help your parents and your brother,” Kemp said. “What do you have to say about that?”
“That we helped in the murders, is that right?” the son said. He and the rest of his family maintain the deaths were an accident, a late-night joy ride turned tragic.
Moments later, after the judge told him he could step down, the son turned to Judge Robert Maranger and asked if he could have permission to hug his parents goodbye.
Laarhuis referenced ongoing discussions about the matter, and said, “Now’s not the time,” causing the mother to burst into tears in the prisoner’s box.
When the son took the stand this week it was the first time he had seen his parents and brother since the surviving Shafia children were removed from the home by child protection authorities the day before the arrests.
On Wednesday afternoon, one of Yahya’s brothers, who knew Shafia through business, took the stand and testified that he was very honest. Under cross-examination, he said that it was clear to “everyone” that Rona Amir Mohammad was one of Shafia’s wives, even though the son insisted while he was on the stand that he thought she was his aunt.