Fazil's testimony…

IT had been many years since Fazil Javid had seen his sister, Tooba. Now here they were, sitting face to face, 10 m apart, in the main courtroom of the Frontenac County Court House in Kingston. Javid had been flown in by the Crown to testify at his sister's murder trial. His testimony would play a significant role in the Shafia convictions.

Sometime around the start of 2009, Tooba had started calling her brother in Sweden where he owned a pizzeria. She needed to speak to her brother on a regular basis "about the family problems in the home … She wanted to open up to me and talk about it," he told the court.

Tooba's main concern, according to Fazil, was Zainab's desire to marry Ammar Wahid and the tension it was creating in the home. Fazil talked to his niece twice on the phone. In fact, he tried to convince Zainab to follow her parents' advice and not marry the young Pakistani man.

They had a third encounter using Skype in April or May of 2009. "That was accidental," said Fazil. Zainab happened to be visiting Fazil's brother Ahmed at his home not far from the Shafias in Montreal. They talked to each other "maybe 10 minutes," recalled Fazil, coming close to tears on the witness stand. Sahar was also in the room with Zainab but wouldn't show herself on the computer's Web camera because she was too shy. Zainab explained to her uncle that she only wanted to marry Ammar to get away from her father.

"She was not happy and she wanted to leave the house. That's what she told me," said Fazil. "The condition was so hard on her she wanted as soon as possible to leave the house."At age 19, Zainab described not being able to wear the clothes she wanted, being forced to wear the hijab, not allowed to go out with friends or even go to the library.

"There was no permission for that. She wanted that freedom. She was fed up. She just wanted to marry," said Fazil. "There was one person and that was Mr. Shafia who was making the decisions."

Zainab also told Fazil about Hamed's role, assigned by their father, to spy on her. "He's always following me," Zainab complained.

"Zainab hated her father," Fazil said. "Shafia hated Zainab."'Fazil had already told Tooba that he was unable to change Zainab's mind about marrying Ammar. He suggested now he might come to Canada and help the family sort out their problems.

As it turned out, Fazil was also getting information about the Shafias' household turmoil from another inside source — Rona. Twice she called him from the Montreal pay phone to talk about how "everything was disintegrated." He recalled Rona talking about Geeti, how the little girl was lonely and staying in Rona's room with her away from the rest of the family.

Rona was isolated. "She didn't have any authority at home like a housewife," said Fazil. According to Fazil, Rona had approached Shafia about getting a divorce and asked for a settlement of $50,000. Shafia told her he would send her to France and give her just $2,000, nothing more.

Fazil decided to float his idea of visiting Montreal with Shafia who was, as usual, working in Dubai. This was a dicey proposition. The two had not spoken since 1992 when they were fleeing to Pakistan and the two men had a disagreement over the ownership of one of the vehicles they were driving. Shafia considered him a mortal enemy because of the incident. Fazil persisted. Around the end of May or early June 2009, he got Shafia's phone number in Dubai. He placed the call from his pizza shop around 4 in the afternoon Swedish time, using a calling card because the card rates were cheaper than using the regular phone system.

Shafia seemed to be prepared for his brother-in-law's call. "He told me, 'I just want some help from you,'" Fazil told the court.

According to Fazil, Shafia tried to engage his help "to fulfill the murder plan of Zainab." Shocked, Fazil listened as Shafia, sounding extremely angry, revealed his plot to have Tooba, Zainab, and one of the younger sisters travel to Sweden for a visit. While they were there, Shafia would show up and one day they would all travel to the seaside for a family barbecue. Shafia would lure Zainab to the water and push her in. Unable to swim, she would surely drown, and Shafia's problems with boyfriends and disobedience would be over.

The words he used to describe his daughter surprised and shocked Fazil."Prostitute, whore — these are very bad words, ugly words in our culture," he told the court. "No one is using that against his own children. He just wanted to flare up my emotions and [make me] accept his request. He was very angry."

Fazil hung up on his brother-in-law. "I swore at him and I cut the line," he said. Then he tried to call his brother in Montreal to warn him that if he heard of any trips being planned, to "tell police he has such an intention." Ahmed wasn't home when Javid called with his warning. When Tooba phoned Sweden, Fazil told her about the plot her husband was hatching.

"I told her, Shafia wants to kill Zainab, to drown her. He told me he will put her in water and drown her. If he wants to take her on a trip, don't accept."'Fazil told Tooba she should go to the police in Montreal, but she asked him no questions and made no commitments. "She told me it was very good you told me. Nothing else she said."

Fazil said the experience unnerved him so much he had to start seeing a psychiatrist. Asked at the trial why Shafia, who considered Fazil a sworn enemy, would suddenly try to enlist him in a plot to kill Zainab, he replied that his brother-in-law's reasoning was obvious.

"Everybody would have thought I would have been the main suspect. Today you would have seen me in that [prisoners'] box," he said. "One hundred percent, everybody would have thought I was the murderer."

The defence also asked why Shafia would murder Geeti when she, unlike her older sisters, wasn't seeing boyfriends. "Why did he kill Geeti? That's a very good question," Fazil said. "She [would be] a very good witness. She would be sitting here as a witness. She would be able to open up and tell all the secrets."