Accused in canal deaths attacked in jail: lawyer
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 8:28 PM ET
CBC News
Tooba Mohammad Yehya, left, her son Hamed Mohammad Shafia and husband Mohammad Shafia are seen outside a Kingston, Ont., courthouse last week. (CBC)The lawyer for an 18-year-old man accused of murdering three of his sisters and his father's first wife says his client has been attacked by other inmates in an eastern Ontario jail.
Jean-Claude Dubé, who is representing Hamed Mohammad Shafia, told CBC News his client has had a rough welcome by prisoners at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee, near Kingston.
Dubé said he has asked that Shafia be given special protection.
"My client has been injured, not badly, but enough to have to go to the hospital and been back the same day at the detention centre," Dubé said.
Shafia, along with his father, Mohammad Shafia, and his mother, Tooba Mohammad Yehya, have been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to murder.
Sisters Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13, were found dead last month along with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock near Kingston.
Client to plead not guilty, says lawyer
The three accused, who live in the Montreal neighbourhood of St-Léonard, are being held in custody in the Kingston area while waiting for bail hearings.
A spokesman for the Quinte Detention Centre would not divulge details of the alleged incident. He would only say that one of the accused in the case complained that he was attacked in his cell by a fellow inmate.
Kingston police are looking into whether the deaths were an "honour killing" — a custom practised in some parts of the world in which most of the victims are women who are perceived to have brought shame to their family.
Shafia's lawyer said Tuesday his client will plead not guilty to all charges. He added that he and lawyers for the other accused may try to move the trial to another city on grounds that police in Kingston have swayed public opinion against his client.
The three accused are expected to appear in a Kingston court via video conference on Aug. 6.
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