'It's not fair,' mother wails as arson verdicts read

A distraught mother broke down in tears Thursday after a judge found one man guilty of ordering the fire that claimed the lives of her two young children, but acquitted his wife of any role in the blaze.

Ali al-Mayahi

"It's not fair, it's not fair," Salima Barih cried, before being helped from the courtroom by friends. She first said something in Iraqi, before switching to English.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Beth Hughes found Abdulazziz Ellahib guilty of two counts of manslaughter and arson causing bodily harm, ending the seven-week trial, which heard testimony from two crack addicts who said they were paid $120 to throw a molotov cocktail into an Applewood condo in November 2004.

Six-year-old Ali al-Mayahi and his four-year-old sister Saja died in the fire.

Barih jumped from the second-storey of the home after not being able to reach her children; their father Tahsin al-Mayahi wasn't home at the time.

The Crown had said a bitter end to an affair between al-Mayahi and Ellahib's wife Manar Hussein led to the fire. Barih and al-Mayahi have since divorced, and he wasn't in court Thursday.

Saja al-Mayahi

Hughes found Hussein not guilty of manslaughter and arson causing bodily harm, and Hussein wailed and fell to the floor after the judge left the courtroom.

Hughes said while she didn't believe most of Hussein's testimony and that the explanation of why she lied to police didn't make sense, there wasn't enough evidence to implicate her in the planning of the attack to convict her.

One of Hussein's lawyers, Rebecca Snukal, said her client who was in custody for a year awaiting trail is looking forward to seeing her two small children.

"I think Manar will never be the same person after what she's experienced in this past year, like anybody that's been part of this trial," Snukal said.

"It's certainly not a celebration," Hussein's lawyer Rupert Joshi added. "We've got two innocent children who have passed away and a young mother who has been separated from her children. It's a sad set of circumstances all around."

Tony DeWitt, charged only with arson, after the Crown alleged he gave the two firebombers money to buy gas for the molotov cocktail, was also found not guilty.

"Hatred never ends in a good outcome. And I hope that message is taken from this entire experience," DeWitt, who denied knowing what the gas was for, said outside court.

After the verdicts were read, Barih called out that she had new evidence, but Det. John Dooks said she had simply been reacting to what she'd heard.

"She's a mother, her two children are dead, she'll never be able to let this rest," Dooks said outside court. "She'll always want to be able to try to determine more evidence or convict people she thinks are responsible.

"I think that was just an emotional statement. There is no new evidence to be brought forward."

Hughes said credibility was the main issue in her decision, and that she believed Michael Sheets and Fernum Kezar when they testified they had been hired by Ellahib to set fire to the home. Both Sheets and Kezar earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson and are serving 15 and 16 years in prison.

Al-Mayahi testified that he had an affair with Hussein and that she became angry when he broke it off. Barih testified that Hussein had threatened the family.

Ellahib's lawyer Alain Hepner had argued his client only hired Sheets and Kezar to assault al-Mayahi, and had no knowledge of the fire. Both Hussein and Ellahib denied there was an affair.

Hussein, at the request of Ellahib, took Sheets and Fernum money after the incident, but says she didn't know what it was for.

Sheets and Kezar testified they called Ellahib for confirmation that no one would be home before they set the fire. Testimony showed calls to Ellahib's cell that night went to voicemail.

Dooks said he is satisfied with the verdict, and that the three people most responsible for the crime are in jail.

"That's the bottom line. We all have emotional opinions, but if you take any of these three people [Ellahib, Sheets, Kezar] out of the picture, this wouldn't have happened," he said.

Ellahib will be sentenced March 3.

with files from the Canadian Press