The day before a Montreal man was charged with killing his three daughters and his first wife, he was recorded on a wiretap saying that even if he is sent to the gallows, nothing is more important than his honor."They betrayed kindness. They betrayed Islam. They betrayed our religion and creed. They betrayed our tradition. They betrayed everything," Mohammad Shafia is heard telling his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya.
Shafia, Yahya and their eldest son, Hamed Mohammad Shafia, 20, are each charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Three teenage Shafia sisters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, were discovered dead inside a car submerged in the Rideau Canal in June 2009.
Police hid a microphone in the Shafia family van after family members returned to collect the victims' belongings. On Tuesday, the courtroom listened to wiretap conversations recorded in the weeks between the day the bodies were found and the arrests.
During the taped exchanges, Shafia says "even if they hoist us onto the gallows ... we have not done anything bad."
Mohammed Shafia can be heard saying, "God curse their generation, they were filthy and rotten children. To hell with them and their boyfriends, may the devil shit on their grave."
The father goes on, comparing his daughters to prostitutes for having boyfriends, and saying that nothing is worth more to him than his honor.
Speaking to his son, Hamed, also charged with first-degree murder, Shafia said, "I'm happy and my conscience is clear. They haven't done good and God punished them."