CANADA: COURT REFUSES TO CONSIDER ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AS A DEFENSE FOR MURDER

Top court refuses to hear whether religion can be a murder defence
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada declined an invitation on Thursday to consider whether Muslim cultural and religious beliefs in ''family honour'' should be taken into account as justification for receiving a lighter sentence for killing an unfaithful wife.

The court refused to hear the appeal of Adi Abdul Humaid, a devout Muslim from the United Arab Emirates, who admitted to stabbing Aysar Abbas to death with a steak knife on a visit to Ottawa in 1999.

In an application filed in the Supreme Court, Humaid's lawyer, Richard Bosada, argued Humaid was provoked by his wife's claim she cheated on him, an insult so severe in the Muslim faith it deprived him of self-control.

The concept of ''family honour'' in the Muslim culture means a man is disgraced if his wife has an affair, said the application.

Humaid was convicted of first-degree murder and lost his appeal at the Ontario Court of Appeal, which concluded his defence lacked an ''air of reality.''

The Supreme Court, by convention, did not give reasons for refusing to consider the case, but it normally only takes on appeals it considers to be of national importance.

Under Canadian law, a rarely used, controversial defence called provocation can allow intentional killings to be reduced to the lesser crime of manslaughter if the accused proves the crime was committed in the heat of passion arising from a ''wrongful act or insult'' that would cause an ordinary person to lose control.

Bosada said the high court should take on the case to provide guidance to lower courts ''in this multi-cultural Canadian society.''

Humaid contends his Muslim beliefs should be a factor because he killed his wife after she hinted she was having an affair with a business associate.

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