New trial ordered for Muslim mom who killed daughter with head scarf

No jail and a suspended sentence for a mother who strangled her daughter with a head scarf? Let the judges get it right the second time around, but don’t count on it. Note how the killer mom, who may have waged jihad with her now dead jihadi husband, is portrayed as the victim. H/t dominion via New trial ordered for Calgary mom who killed daughter with head scarf.

CALGARY — Alberta’s highest court has ordered a new trial for a Calgary mother who strangled her 14-year-old daughter to death with a head scarf at their home four years ago.

Alberta Court of Appeal Justices Peter Martin, Ellen Picard and Patricia Rowbotham were unanimous Wednesday that the trial judge erred in law when he acquitted Aset Magomadova last July of second-degree murder in the February 2007 death of her daughter, Aminat, and convicted her of manslaughter.

Magomadova, 41, was given a suspended sentence and placed on three years of probation.

The Crown had argued for 12 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction.

The decision not to jail the mother — a refugee from war-torn Chechnya where her husband had been killed by Russian security forces — prompted outrage among victims’ groups in Canada.

Crown prosecutor Goran Tomljanovic made it clear to the appeal court he did not believe the verdict was unjust, but argued Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sal LoVecchio did not properly apply the law to the facts.

“There’s no question this was a 14-year-old girl who was out of control, violent, destructive and provocative to those in authority, was abusing drugs and into prostitution,” Tomljanovic told the three-judge panel.

“The victim and the accused had a history of conflict . . . There is no issue that the accused killed her daughter or how she did it.”

However, Tomljanovic said the forensic pathologist’s evidence clearly showed a victim of strangulation would lose consciousness in 15 to 30 seconds and there must be a minimum of two minutes of constant pressure to cause death.

Magomadova had argued self-defence at her trial, testifying her daughter had come at her with a large knife.

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A devout Muslim, Magomadova testified Aminat had attacked her with a knife. She told court she reacted by wrapping a head scarf around Aminat’s neck and twice told the girl to put the knife down before she lost consciousness, then stopped immediately.

Police later found a knife in the room, but it did not have the daughter’s fingerprints on it.