Thualfikar Alattiya
November 19, 2004
Windsor, Ontario
See also Thualfikar Alattiya in the Canadian Homicides section.
Windsor Star
(Windsor, Ontario)
November 20, 2004
Throat slit, cabbie dies
'There's a killer on the loose'
Donald Mcarthur
Windsor Star
Saturday, November 20, 2004
A 41-year-old Veteran Cab driver, a married father of three, was found dead in the backseat of his taxi after he was savagely cut in the throat less than three hours after starting his shift Friday.
The killer of Thualfikar Alattiya, a civil engineer from Iraq who had been driving a cab for 2 1/2 months, remains at large, leaving Alattiya's fellow drivers devastated and concerned for their safety.
"There's a killer on the loose and everybody is going to be on edge until the police apprehend someone," said Stu Caverhill, Vet cab general manager.
Alattiya is the city's third homicide of the year and the first Windsor cab driver slain on the job in more than three decades.
Alfred Maisonville, 62, saw cab No. 144 stop on Montrose Street outside the side door of his home at 1286 Wellington St. about 7:20 a.m.
A grey Chevrolet Cavalier pulled up beside it and a man, labelled by police as the "prime suspect" in the grisly slaying, climbed out of the driver's side of the taxi and into the Cavalier, which headed east on Montrose.
When Maisonville saw the cab still idling an hour later, he went outside to investigate and found Alattiya slumped over in the back seat.
"His head was about cut off, from ear to ear," said Maisonville.
Police described Alattiya's fatal injury as an "open wound to the neck" and "severe trauma to the head and neck area."
The taxi's engine and fare metre were still running when police arrived on the scene. As forensics officers examined the vehicle beneath grey skies and a light drizzle, a single headlight beamed brightly and windshield wipers slipped eerily back and forth across the front window.
Windsor police Staff Sgt. Gerry Corriveau said at the scene that six detectives were working on the case. He was unable to say whether robbery was a motive or how Alattiya's body ended up in the back seat.
The vehicle was finally removed, with Alattiya's body still in the back, about 1 p.m. on the back of a Myer's tow truck. In the hours prior, a steady stream of taxi drivers drove to the scene in their blue and yellow cabs like mourners in a funeral procession.
"I feel shaken now because I drive at nighttime and this happened in the day," said Vet cab driver Habib Aladab before breaking down in tears.
"I don't believe that this happened."
Friends and relatives of Alattiya gathered at his Saint Joseph Street home Friday afternoon to offer what comfort they could to his wife Rola and their three children, Mortada, 8, Leilaa, 7, and Ali, 4.
"He was a family man, a man who was trying to make a living for his family," said friend and neighbour Amer El-Mokdad.
"He loved everybody and everybody loved him."
El-Mokdad said Alattiya's wife was in shock.
El-Mokdad said Alattiya was a civil engineer, originally from Iraq. He came to Windsor about five years ago after stints in Syria and Lebanon. He worked in the construction trade before joining Veteran Cab.
"It's an awful day for all of us," said Mike Renaud, the president of CAW Local 195, the union representing about 350 Vet cab drivers.
"When people go to work, people expect to see them come home at night."
Renaud wouldn't discuss specific measures on the day of the tragedy but said steps must be taken to ensure the safety of city taxi drivers.
Caverhill said he doubted whether shields separating drivers from their fares would be effective, pointing out drivers are killed in Detroit despite the protective barrier.
"If someone is determined to harm you, a shield is of no value," he said.
All Vet Cabs were outfitted with Global Positioning Systems last year and that data could help police determine the location of Alattiya's final pickup and the route he took to Montrose Street.
"There's a physical trail," said Caverhill. "They know where the cab was, at what time, and what it was doing."
All Vet Cabs are also equipped with an emergency system enabling drivers to send a distress message to the dispatcher and all taxis on the road, but Alattiya didn't activate it.
Police are seeking the public's help in locating a six-foot, 180- pound white male who was wearing a dark toque and dark clothing. He was seen exiting the ill-fated taxi about 7:20 a.m. and left in a dark grey Chevrolet Cavalier with tinted windows. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 255-6700, ext. 4830 or Crime Stoppers at 258-TIPS.
Ran with fact box "Suspect" which has been appended to the story.
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http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=f957706c-01ff-4fbe-b63f-ab9386727ae4
Two held in cab killing - Fort St.John,BC,Canada
City police search college area for murder weapon
Donald Mcarthur and Dave Hall
Star Staff Reporters
November 22, 2004
With two suspects in custody facing first degree murder charges in Friday's "vicious" slaying of a Veteran Cab driver, Windsor police scoured St. Clair College campus Sunday night looking for the murder weapon.
Mohamed Al Ghazzi, 19, of Windsor, and a young offender who can't be identified, were arraigned Sunday in connection with the killing of Thualfikar Alattiya. The pair was arrested about 10 p.m. Saturday as they drove east on Wyandotte Street near Cameron Avenue.
Alattiya, a married father of three, was found in the back seat of his taxi on Montrose Street with his throat slit Friday morning.
He suffered defensive wounds to his hands, other cuts to his upper body and died from a "massive loss of blood," police said.
NOT RANDOM
His murder set fellow taxi drivers on edge but police now believe the 41-year-old civil engineer from Iraq was targeted for a "perceived past transgression."
"This was not a random act of violence," Windsor police Staff Sgt. Gerry Corriveau said Sunday. "It was a horrible vicious crime and, while there is never any justification for a homicide, something started this and we need to know what it was."
Corriveau said there had been no prior police involvement relating to a dispute between the victim and the two accused.
"They didn't know each other through any involvement through us," he said.
"They appear to have known each other within the Iraqi community."
Corriveau is appealing for the public to come forward with information about the relationship between Alattiya and his alleged attackers.
"I'm looking for witnesses and I'm looking for motives," he said.
No murder weapon has been recovered but a team of 17 detectives and uniformed officers began sifting through the 125 green garbage receptacles dotting the grounds of St. Clair College shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday.
"We're acting on a tip," Windsor police Det. Brad Hill said at the scene.
Alattiya, a driver with Veteran Cab for less than three months, began his shift Friday about 5 a.m. Two hours later, his taxi -- number 144 -- was specifically requested to pick up a fare at 1314 Wellington Ave.
Analysis of his taxi's global positioning system signals shows that Alattiya picked up his final fare at 7:04 a.m. and then proceeded south on Wellington, east on Montrose Street, north on Elm Avenue, west on College Avenue and north on Huron Church Road.
The taxi then went east on Wyandotte Street, south on Campbell Avenue, east on College and south on Elm before coming to a halt on Montrose between Wellington and Elm at 7:19 a.m.
Alattiya and his attacker engaged in a vicious, bloody struggle in that 15-minute window but police aren't certain where or when the murder took place.
A witness saw a man leave the still- running taxi about 7:20 a.m. Friday and climb into a grey Chevrolet Cavalier that pulled alongside the idling cab.
The two accused were driving a car fitting that description when they were arrested Saturday by members of the emergency services unit. Police made the arrest after a tip from the public put them on "the right track," said Corriveau.
Police are urging anyone who saw cab number 144 during the 15- minute window Friday morning to contact them and are also seeking more information about the relationship between the victim and the two accused.
CAN YOU HELP?
Anyone with information can call police at 255-6700, ext. 4830 or Crime Stoppers at 258-TIPS.
© The Windsor Star 2004
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Windsor Star
(Windsor, Ontario)
November 24, 2004
3rd suspect held in cabbie slaying
Accused a 'friend' of two other males arrested
Kelly Patrick
Windsor Star
November 24, 2004
A third Windsor male is facing a first-degree murder charge in the gruesome slaying of a Windsor cabbie after turning himself in to police.
Ali Al-Shammari, 19, is a "friend" of the two males arrested Saturday night for the slaying of 41-year-old Veteran Cab driver Thualfikar Alattiya, said Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton. He was arraigned Tuesday.
McNorton wouldn't elaborate on the relationship between Al- Shammari, Mohamed Al Ghazzi, 19, and a 17-year-old male, all accused in Alattiya's death. The 17-year-old can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
"The third suspect was a person we did have an interest in speaking to," McNorton said of Al-Shammari. "He obviously was aware of that so he turned himself in shortly before midnight."
McNorton said detectives came across Al-Shammari's name during the "intensive" investigation that followed the discovery of Alattiya's bloody body inside taxi 144 Friday morning.
"We've had contact with both friends and associates on the victim's side as well as the accused side and that information is out there," he said.
Al-Shammari has retained lawyer Pat Ducharme as of Tuesday.
"The investigation is in the very early stages and no written or video disclosure has been given to me yet," said Ducharme. "I have had a fairly lengthy interview with him but I have lots of homework to do before I'm ready to comment on the case."
He said his client would likely seek bail.
McNorton said detectives are unlikely to release details about the motive or weapon used in the Iraqi-born civil engineer's death. Alattiya's throat was slit and he suffered defensive wounds to his hands, but McNorton wouldn't say whether police had found the blade.
"There have been a number of pieces of evidence recovered. We're not going to disclose what they are because we don't want to jeopardize the case," he said.
Police say the alleged killers knew Alattiya, a married father of three, through the city's Iraqi community. They allege he was deliberately targeted for a previous perceived transgression.
Alattiya's cab was found idling on Montrose Street between Wellington and Elm avenues Friday morning. From his cab's global positioning system, police believe Alattiya was killed between 7:04 and 7:19 a.m. He picked up his final fare at 1314 Wellington Ave.
Detectives are also asking for help in locating a cellphone believed to have been thrown from Alattiya's cab.
"It's a piece of evidence that we feel is important to the case," said McNorton. "The information we've been able to garner is that there was one in there and it was thrown from the taxi, we believe, anywhere from the area of the crime scene up to around the area of Wyandotte and Sunset."
Anyone who may have found the cellphone is asked to call Windsor police at 255-6700, ext. 4830, or crime stoppers at 258- TIPS.
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Windsor Star
(Windsor, Ontario)
June 23, 2005
Teen admits he slit cab driver's throat
Sarah Sacheli
Windsor Star
June 23, 2005
The teenager who slit cab driver Thualfikar Alattiya's throat to the point of near decapitation pleaded guilty Wednesday to first- degree murder.
Hassan Al Ghazzi, 18, admitted he stabbed Alattiya 27 times and slit his throat so thoroughly that only his spinal cord kept his head attached to his body.
According to facts read in court by assistant Crown attorney Kim Bertholet -- facts not disputed by Al Ghazzi -- the teen was in on a plot to "assault and intimidate" Alattiya by ambushing him in his cab.
Armed with gloves, balaclavas and speaker wire fashioned into a lariat, Al Ghazzi placed a call to Veteran Cab at 6:55 a.m. Nov. 19, 2004, requesting Alattiya's car, cab No. 144, at an address on Wellington Avenue. Once Alattiya arrived, he was attacked and pulled into the back seat of his cab.
Police found Alattiya, 41, dead in the back seat a little over an hour after he was dispatched on the call.
An Iraqi-born engineer, the married father of three had been driving a cab for 80 days.
Bertholet told the court Al Ghazzi, his older brother, Mohamed, and friend, Ali Al-Shammari, both 19, had planned the attack, and even tried to carry it out a few days earlier. But they had not set out to kill Alattiya. It was only when Alattiya recognized his attackers during the assault that the incident became more violent, she said.
Laying out evidence collected in part by a police informant who wore a recording device into the Windsor Jail, Bertholet said Al- Shammari shouted, "Kill him," during the attack. Mohamed Al Ghazzi, who was driving the cab while his brother and Al- Shammari had Alattiya in the back seat, said, "Wait, let's think about this." Al-Shammari gave Hassan Al Ghazzi a folding knife and Hassan killed Alattiya.
After the murder, Hassan Al Ghazzi returned to the family home, changed his clothes and showered. He attended classes at Catholic Central high school and later he and his accomplices went to the mall and out to dinner at a Chinese buffet, shortchanging the restaurant on the bill.
Bertholet told the court the motive behind the crime was family honour. She told court that Alattiya and Al Ghazzi's father Daham, along with other members of the local Shiite Muslim community, had been trying to purchase property for a mosque. Alattiya contributed $1,000 to the cause. Daham Al Ghazzi purchased a building, but didn't put Alattiya's name on the deed.
Alattiya conveyed his dissatisfaction to members of the the local Muslim community. Community members told police an angry Daham Al Ghazzi threatened Alattiya's life.
Daham Al Ghazzi is also charged with first-degree murder in Alattiya's death. Police allege the father dispatched his sons to attack Alattiya.
Al Ghazzi was a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the murder. The Crown is seeking to have him sentenced as an adult, meaning he will serve his sentence in prison rather than in youth detention. Maria Carroccia, Al Ghazzi's lawyer, said he will not fight an adult sentence since he would automatically be transferred out of a youth facility after his 20th birthday anyway.
Normally, young offenders cannot be named according to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. But Ontario court Justice Guy DeMarco Wednesday lifted the publication ban. Given that Al Ghazzi will be sentenced as an adult, DeMarco said the teen's name should not be kept from the public because of the severity of the crime and the "considerable public interest" in the incident.
Al Ghazzi appears in court next month to set a date for a sentencing hearing. The judge has no discretion on the sentence. The Criminal Code dictates that teens Al Ghazzi's age convicted of first-degree murder receive automatic sentences of 10 years before being eligible for parole, Carroccia explained.
Al Ghazzi is the third of seven people charged in relation to Alattiya's murder to plead guilty to playing a role in the crime.
Also Wednesday, a 17-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to Alattiya's murder was sentenced to another 240 days in custody for lying to investigators. The girl, who cannot be named according to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been held at Bluewater Youth detention centre near Goderich, since her arrest in January.
At the girl's sentencing hearing, Alattiya's widow, Rola Kamel, read a statement about how losing her husband has affected her family. Through an interpreter who translated her Arabic statement to English, Kamel, 31, described Alattiya as a "loving and compassionate husband" whom she considers a "martyr" for being killed while trying to provide for his children, aged eight, six and 2 1/2.
The children, she said, cry for their father every day. Al Ghazzi's mother, Salwa, wept in court as Kamel spoke.
COURT DATES
A preliminary hearing for Daham Al Ghazzi, Mohamed Al Ghazzi and Ali Al-Shammari is scheduled for July 4.
A 16-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to laundering and discarding bloody clothing and providing false alibis will be sentenced July 7 on a charge of being an accessory after the murder.
Azar M. Rabah, 26, was recently charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He appears in court today by video from the Windsor Jail.
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Canada.com
Fort St. John
Cabbie's widow condemns girl
Killers' helper has 'same cold blood'
Donald McArthur
Windsor Star
Thursday, July 28, 2005
CREDIT: Dan Janisse, Star photo
Rola Kamel, widow of slain cab driver Thualfikar Alattiya prays at her husband's casket during his Nov. 24, 2004 funeral.
A 16-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to concocting alibis and laundering bloody clothes after the murder of a Windsor cabbie wept openly at his memorial service last November and offered condolences to his grieving widow.
Rola Kamel, the widow of Thualfikar Alattiya, the father of three viciously slain in his Veteran Cab Nov. 19, condemned the girl for her brazen and heartless duplicity in a victim impact statement read in court Wednesday.
"How did she feel when she washed the clothes of those cold-blooded killers?" Kamel asked the court through an Arabic interpreter. "For sure, she is devoid of feelings and has the same cold blood."
Kamel said her three young children cry often, "pleading" to see their father and that her eldest boy has been forced to come to terms with "the harshness of life."
Kamel said she has been struggling in a "strange country away from family and friends" to deal with the loss of a "loving and compassionate husband who carried the whole family responsibility."
Alattiya, 41, an Iraqi-born civil engineer who had been driving a taxi for 80 days, was found stabbed 27 times and nearly decapitated in the back of his still-running taxi parked on Montrose Street between Wellington and Elm streets.
Seven people have been charged in connection with Alattiya's killing. Hassan Al Ghazzi, 18, pleaded guilty in June to first-degree murder in what police allege was an honour killing related to a property dispute within Windsor's Muslim community. Also Wednesday, Al Ghazzi's brother, father and a family friend were committed to stand trial for the cabbie's death.
The young offender in court Wednesday pleaded guilty in May to being an accessory after the fact. Court heard the girl, who was 15 at the time, laundered bloody clothes, discarded them in an east-end dumpster and provided alibis for two of the accused.
Prosecutor Kim Bertholet and defence attorney Michael O'Hearn drafted a joint submission calling for four months of custody in a youth detention centre and two months of supervision in the community, followed by probation.
SERIOUS OFFENCE
"The nature of the offence before the court is a very serious one," said Ontario court Justice Sharman Bondy, hinting strongly she might not endorse the lawyers' sentencing suggestion. "The court always has the last say with respect to sentencing."
The girl faces a maximum penalty of three years in a youth detention facility and Bondy asked O'Hearn why she didn't deserve the harshest sentence.
O'Hearn said the girl had no knowledge of the crime beforehand and that her offence was a non-violent one. He added she had pleaded guilty early on and had already been in custody for more than six months.
He said the joint submission was "a just and proportionate sentence" that would meet the twin goals of rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.
"This whole incident has had a profound effect on her," he said. "It's something she will never forget."
Bondy expressed reservations about the extent of the girl's remorse, noting a psychologist's report said the girl referred to Alattiya as "that guy" and referred to his widow only once in interviews and never his children.
Dressed in green corduroy pants and a black hijab, the girl wept softly during the hearing Wednesday and blew her mother a kiss before being taken back into custody.
She will be sentenced Aug. 8.
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Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario) September 20, 2007
Trial starts in brutal cabbie slaying
Sarah Sacheli, Windsor Star Published:Â Thursday, September 20, 2007
Jurors in a long-awaited trial into the 2004 killing of a Veteran Cab driver heard Thursday of a plot to lure and ambush the victim that resulted in his brutal slaying.
Addressing the jury on the opening day of the first-degree murder trial of Ali Al-Shammari, assistant Crown attorney Renee Puskas described how the accused man, who was 19 at the time, conspired with friends Hassan Al Ghazzi, then 17, and Mohamed Al Ghazzi, then 19, and a 16-year-old girl. Puskas said the girl was to call the cab company requesting Thualfikar Alattiya's cab No. 144. She was to have Alattiya take her to an isolated area and once there steal his keys and run into a wooded area where the two brothers and family friend Al-Shammari would be waiting, armed with a wooden bat and wearing masks and gloves.
But on the day the girl placed the call, Alattiya was not working, Puskas said. On Nov. 19, 2004, she was to call again, but she decided not to participate.
Puskas said the three other teens carried out the scheme, killing Alattiya and leaving him in the back seat of the cab.
Puskas told jurors they will hear testimony that the man's throat was slit around 90 per cent of his neck's circumference, clear through to his spinal column.
He had nine stab wounds to his chest and a single cut to his forearm that covered two-thirds of his arm circumference.
Puskas told the jury they will hear that the victim Alattiya's blood was on clothing police found in Al-Shammari's bedroom.
Among the witnesses who testified Thursday, Veteran Cab dispatcher Cynthia Ronson told the court she got a request for Alattiya's cab at 6:55 a.m. the day he was found dead. Breaking down on the witness stand, Ronson testified through tears that the caller sounded like a male in his early 20s and at one point said, "Hey, guys," to other people near him on the phone.
Another assistant Crown attorney, George Spartinos, read into the court record testimony of Frank Maisonville, who testified at the preliminary hearing in the case, but has since died.
Behind his house at the corner of Wellington and Montrose streets, Maisonville said he witnessed a man get out of the driver's door of the taxi cab and into the back seat of a car that had pulled alongside it.
When he later noticed the cab still there, he went outside to investigate. He found a non-responsive man in the back seat and called 911.
The first witness in the trial was Alattiya's widow, Rola Kamel.
Kamel said that a member of the Al Ghazzi family and her husband were in a dispute over fundraising for a mosque.
Al-Shammari's trial is expected to continue for nine weeks before Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance.
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The Windsor Star
Friday, October 26, 2007
Slain cabbie begged for mercy
Brutal killing recounted in court by confessed killer
Trevor Wilhelm
The cabbie prayed to God and begged for his life, but his attackers didn't stop.
Confessed killer Mohamed Al Ghazzi told a jury Friday how he, his brother Hassan and Ali Al-Shammari kidnapped cab driver Thualfikar Alattiya, drove him around in his own taxi while beating him, then slit his throat.
Al Ghazzi, who testified for the Crown in the first-degree murder trial of Al-Shammari, said Alattiya begged for mercy as his attackers beat on him.
Photo: Left to right Layla age 6, son Murtada age 7 and Thualfikar Alattiya, at Niagara Falls in this undated family photo. Alattiya was slain in 2004.
"He said 'I won't do nothing, I won't bother you guys again,' like begging," said Al Ghazzi, 22, serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years. ". . . He did a kind of a blessing, prayer, whatever. When you kill an animal or person -- it's like he's saying goodbye to God, saying a blessing."
Al Ghazzi, wearing leg shackles under a velvet blue track suit, repeatedly stood up, made choking motions and lifted his feet to demonstrate how his brother Hassan hit Alattiya while Al-Shammari held him down on Nov. 19, 2004.
Al Ghazzi said that after calling Alattiya's taxi to an address on Wellington Street, he parked his car and waited. Hassan and Al-Shammari, 22, stood outside the house. When Alattiya pulled up, they got in.
"The car started to shake, or wiggle, you'd say," said Al Ghazzi.
He said a taxi door opened, and one of the guys called him over.
Al Ghazzi ran to the taxi, which was rolling forward.
"Mr. Alattiya, my brother had him in a head lock trying to pull him into the back seat," said Al Ghazzi.
They were having trouble pulling him into the back, he said, because of his seatbelt.
"He's halfway in there and I'm trying to get in the driver's side," said Al Ghazzi.
He said he reached in and put the car in park. Al-Shammari pulled a knife and sliced the seatbelt.
After that, it was easier to get him into the back, Al Ghazzi said.
"My brother just pulled him," he said. "There was nothing holding him now. I just pushed his feet up."
Al Ghazzi started driving.
"My brother is punching the guy in the back," he said. "He started to call out, 'why are you guys doing that?' Calling us by name. My brother just kept punching him. . . He's begging us to leave him alone."
Then Al-Shammari, who'd been wearing a face mask along with Hassan, started "freaking" that Alattiya realized who they were, he said. Al Ghazzi said his brother asked what they should do. Al-Shammari answered.
"That's when he said kill him," said Al Ghazzi.
Al Ghazzi, still driving the taxi, said he told the other two they should think before doing that.
"Then it was too late," he said. "Ali gave my brother the knife and he just cut him right away."
By the time he turned around, Al Ghazzi said the cab driver was stabbed in the neck "at least three, four times."
He said Alattiya wasn't able to put up much of a fight.
"He was wore out from all the punches."
He said Al-Shammari had held him down, pushing him into a corner of the back seat, while Hassan hit him.
After rejecting a suggestion to burn the taxi, Al Ghazzi said he drove back to where his car was.
During the ride, Al-Shammari kept telling Hassan to make sure Alattiya wasn't breathing, Al Ghazzi said.
"I can see he's dead, blood and everything," said Al Ghazzi. "But my brother kept going. Wanted to make sure, I guess, the person is completely dead."
When he returned to his car, Al Ghazzi got a blanket from the trunk and put it on his seat.
"My brother was really bloody," he said.
Before they left, Al-Shammari went back to the taxi and took Alattiya's fanny pack.
"Ali said he wanted to make it look like a robbery."
twilhelm@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777, ext. 642
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Windsor Star
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Crown rests case
The Crown rested its case Tuesday against 22-year-old Ali Al-Shammari, charged with first-degree murder of a Veteran Cab driver.
Thualfikar Alattiya was found in the back seat of his cab with his throat slit and stab wounds to the chest on Nov.19, 2004.
Al-Shammari, who was 19 at the time, and brothers Hassan Al Ghazzi, then 17, and Mohamed Al Ghazzi, then 19, were charged in the killing.
The prosecution has argued that Al-Shammari and the Al Ghazzi brothers plotted to lure Alattiya to an isolated area and attack him. Court has heard that on the morning of the murder, a call was made to Veteran Cab requesting Alattiya's cab.
Alattiya's widow has testified that her husband and a member of the Al Ghazzi family were in a dispute over fundraising for a mosque. Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance excused the jury until Thursday morning.
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9 years for dad whose sons killed cab driver
Brains behind plan guilty of manslaughter, obstruction
Doug Schmidt
Windsor Star
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The father -- and brains -- behind a "dangerous plan" that ended with his two sons and their friend serving life sentences for a grisly murder, was himself handed a nine-year prison sentence Friday for his role in the 2004 killing of Windsor cabbie Thualfikar Alattiya.
On the eve of a trial expected to last months, with a witness list drawn from around the world, Daham Al Ghazzi pleaded guilty to manslaughter in what Superior Court Justice Robert Abbey called the "horrible" murder of Thualfikar Alattiya on Nov. 19, 2004.
He also pleaded guilty to attempted obstruction of justice for his attempts, while awaiting trial, to intimidate witnesses into changing their testimony.
Given two-for-one credit for his three years in pre-sentence custody, Al Ghazzi, 56, was ordered to serve another three years in penitentiary.
A local lawyer involved in the case said Al Ghazzi could be eligible for day parole by June and out on full parole before the end of next year.
Both of Al Ghazzi's sons, Hassan and Mohamed -- 17 and 19, respectively, at the time of the crime -- and their friend Ali Al-Shammari, then 19, are serving life sentences for carrying out the taxi hijack and bloody murder of the father of three young children.
In addition to face wounds, cuts, abrasions, contusions and three broken ribs, assistant Crown attorney Renee Puskas told the court the victim's throat "had been cut to the point of near decapitation."
The murder was the culmination of a dispute that began after Alattiya demanded the return of $1,000 he'd collected for Al Ghazzi from local Shiite Muslims for a planned community centre from which Alattiya subsequently withdrew. According to a statement of facts agreed to by both the Crown and defence, Al Ghazzi also accused Alattiya of "spying" on him with the intent of exposing his family for welfare fraud.
Police later learned that Al Ghazzi had been warning members of the local Muslim community that Alattiya had better stop insulting his family, and he threatened to "send his boys to beat Mr. Alattiya," according to the statement of facts. Puskas said it was a matter of ongoing discussion in the Al Ghazzi home in the month before Alattiya's death.
The original plan was to have the three young men collect the cabbie, beat him up and then abandon him in a field. The plan went awry when Alattiya recognized and then appealed to his masked assailants.
Al-Shammari was sentenced last week to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for handing a knife to Hassan, helping hold down Allatiya and ordering the other teen to kill him.
Both of Al Ghazzi's sons are also serving life sentences for the killing. Two other minors were convicted of being accessories after the fact.
Puskas read out a victim impact statement from Alattiya's widow Rola Kamel, who informed the court via e-mail that she has left the country for a new start with her traumatized family.
Her husband was killed three years after the family came to Canada "with hopes and dreams," she said, adding his death has left her "overwhelmed with grief."
Alattiya's son "views the world as a dangerous place" and trusts no one, she wrote.
Justice Abbey sentenced Al Ghazzi to seven years for manslaughter and added a consecutive two-year term on the obstruction charge.
The judge also imposed a lifetime weapons ban and ordered Al Ghazzi to submit a blood sample for a police DNA bank. He could face deportation back to Iraq upon his release, although one court observer said it is unlikely given the current security situation there.
"He's happy to have this done," Al Ghazzi's lawyer Daniel Topp told reporters.
"It's a sad conclusion to a tragic chain of events."
dschmidt@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5586
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