One of the stories that has gone dormant for almost a year is the case of the murder Yasmin Ashareh.

Well, it was come back with a vengeance.

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If the police have who they believe to be Yasmin Ashareh's murderer under arrest, then why are they still canvasing the neighbourhood in which she lived?

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I've confirmed with a Toronto Star reporter that Awad Ashareh is indeed Yasmin Ashareh's father. Yasmin Ashareh is the young woman found with her throat cut in the west end of Toronto this past summer. She lived alone in a rooming house, working as a cashier in a local grocery store. Her family is from Somalia, and for some time ago I began to wonder if her father was Awad Ashareh, an important MP in the Somali government and a conservative Islamic cleric who was once the Minister for Religious Affairs in the Somali province of Puntland.

I found a few people who asserted that this was the case, but today I have received confirmation.

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William Imona-Russel, the man arrested for the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, is a con man. But is he a murderer?

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The BBC is reporting on an assassination attempt on the president of Somalia's fragile government. Who are the likely suspects? Turns out there are quite a few.

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Somalia continues to slide into religiously justified oppression. Despite the actions of the Islamists, the democratic government is negotiating a power-sharing deal. A familiar name is leading the government delegation.

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An interesting comment about the initial investigation into the murder of Yasmin Ashareh -- but for now, just a rumour, without even an email address for me to use to contact the person. So I'm not given this any credence, though I'm not saying it's not accurate either. Just...interesting. Maybe a reader with more knowledge of the situation can provide some insight.

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The Supreme Islamic Courts Council is going to dress its militia members up in proper uniforms, suggesting that the Council is confident that it will become the legitimate government in Somalia. It is also stepping up efforts to impose the strictest form of Sharia law on the populace in areas under its control.

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In following the story of the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, I find myself tracking events in Somalia. With the focus on Lebanon, important events in Africa are going unnoticed.

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The Toronto man charged with the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, William Imona-Russel, was picked up only after several days of police surveillance.

Yasmin Ashareh was 20-years-old, living alone in a rooming house in the west end of Toronto. Her mother and siblings live in another area of the Greater Toronto Area. The identity of her father has not been confirmed, but I have learned from multiple sources that he might be Awad Ahmed Ashareh, a powerful political figure in Somalia (the Minister for Religious Affairs in Puntland, no less), with ties to a fundamentalist Islamic group, the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (formerly known as the Islamic Courts Union) vying for power in that war-torn country from their power base in Mogadishu.

None of this appears in the media, other than a mention in the Globe and Mail that Yasmin's father was a political dissident who returned to Somalia about six years ago to help rebuild the country.

But I have been giving thought to the question of why the police would have placed Imona-Russel under surveillance, and suggested that a plausible explanation was that the police were observing Imona-Russel because they were hoping he would lead them to another person. Someone the police had reason to believe was linked to the murder.

Idle musings, I thought. Until this morning.

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Just how solid is the case against William Imona-Russel? He is the man charged with the murder of 20-year-old Yasmin Ashareh. She had been stabbed in the throat multiple times. Her body was hidden in a duffel bag and left for garbage pickup. The regular pickup was missed, and when the sanitation crew came around to pick up the garbage on their next scheduled day, the body was discovered.

If you have been following this story with me, you know that Yasmin Ashareh might be linked to powerful people in Somalia, including a conservative Muslim faction engaged in a power struggle with the current government with the goal of turning Somalia into an Islamic state.

But turning my attention back to Toronto, I have to say that there are elements of the story of Imona-Russel's arrest that have been bothering me ever since I first read them. I'm still bothered by them, and I thought I'd share my concerns and hear your opinions.

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I continue to explore the links proceeding from murder victim Yasmin Ashareh and her family. I would expect to hit a brick wall, but instead the links are taking me in more frightening directions.

Update: Added details concerning the most recent fighting in Somalia, involving the alleged allies of Yasmin's purported father.

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The investigation of the murder of Yasmin Ashareh continues. A man, William Imona-Russel, has been arrested. My original theory that Yasmin might have been the victim of an honour killing seems to have been discredited.

Fair enough.

Still, with Yasmin's family connections, it doesn't sound so far-fetched.

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Joe Friesen of the Globe and Mail has revealed more about Yasmin Ashareh, her family, and her alleged killer.

I have to admit that the new information leaves me more confused, not less.

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I've always assumed that one of the jobs at a major newspaper was fact-checking. Somebody proofreads stories to ensure that the facts reported are consistent with the facts as they are known today, and as they have been generally reported before.

So when the facts being reported change, I have to wonder why, especially when the change is not called out, but simply reported as if it has always been reported that way.

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An arrest has been made in this gruesome murder:

On Friday, July 28, 2006, William Imona-Russel, 32, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with First Degree Murder.

He is scheduled to appear at Old City Hall courts, room 111, on Saturday, July 29, 2006, at 10 a.m.

We'll learn more tomorrow.

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In considering the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, there is a detail that is constantly being misreported by some media sources:

Police are seeking the public’s help in tracing the movements of a 20-year-old Etobicoke woman before she was stabbed to death and dumped in a garbage bag last week.

This report was published today. Listen to the Toronto Police news conference that took place yesterday. There is much made about the fact that the body was found in a duffel bag and not a garbage bag, though some garbage bags were also seized as being relevant to the investigation.

Not all the newspapers are getting this wrong, I should point out.

Why should this matter?

The duffel bag suggests that the body was moved a considerable distance. A garbage bag is not strong enough to hold a body. It would stretch and split in short order. A duffel bag, on the other hand, means that the killing could have happened just about anywhere. Lugging a garbage bag is hard work. A duffle bag has strong broad straps to help carry the weight.

The contents of the other bags? Bloody sheets and towels, perhaps?

Now this gets interesting. A killer would dispose of the body as far from the scene of the crime, as well as from his own residence (assuming these are different locations) as possible. He’d want to keep police attention away from himself. So why not dispose of the body in a ravine, where it might take weeks or months for the remains to be discovered? The only thing I can think of is that the housing complex is a place where the killer felt comfortable. It is a place he is familiar with, where he felt he could carry out the disposal and not be encountered, and where his knowledge of the garbage pickup schedule meant that he was confident that the body and other evidence would be carried off within hours. As it turned out, the garbage was missed, and the decomposition of the remains drew attention.

Of course, I could be giving the killer or killers too much credit.

In any case, the police must certainly be considering tenants of the housing complex, past as well as present, looking for a name that somehow intersects with Yasmin Ashareh’s short life.

Technorati Tags: Yasmin Ashareh, Toronto, murder

Posted by: Steve Janke at 04:18 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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When I wrote about the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, I discussed how this crime has the fingerprints of an honour killing all over it.

I took some heat for that:

Wow how about you wait until we know what happened in this case before you start blaming religion and speculating about honour killings? You are going into a whole tirade about "da Canadian values" already in relation to muslim extremism, but if she was born in Canada it is just as likely (if not more) that she was killed in a typical Canadian domestic dispute (which, by the way, happen 1000 times more often then "honour killings" .

Well, I did say I was being speculative.

Still, here is some more information from the print edition of the National Post:

A 20-year-old Toronto woman whose decomposing body was found in a duffle bag in the city’s west end on Friday was known to neighnours as a quiet girl, believed to be pregnant and living alone.

Reports that Ms. Ashareh was pregnant could not be confirmed.

A neighbour living beside the housing complex suggested Ms. Ashareh, who is believed to have been Muslim, might have been ill-regarded if she was pregnant out of wedlock.

I know I’m way ahead of the facts as they are known (at least to the public), but the bells keep going off in my head on this one.

I hope I’m wrong, because the implications of this sort of subculture at work inside Canada are scary. But I can’t shake the feeling that we’re going to have to face those implications as a result of this tragedy.

Technorati Tags: Yasmin Ashareh, Toronto, murder

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I’m going to state the obvious. That has gotten people in trouble in the past. It might be my turn. We’ll see.

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