b.c. man who fatally stabbed another over intimate images gets 10 years in prison
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a b.c. man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for fatally stabbing another man who’d had an affair with his wife in the past and had gone on to share intimate images from the relationship with her family.
riza jafari, 34, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of 40-year-old fred sangan on june 17, 2024. jafari, who has been in custody since, was sentenced in b.c. supreme court in july in a judgment posted online friday.
his partner, 30-year-old hatice haydari, participated in the attack and is out on bail awaiting sentencing for her role in it. she has also pleaded guilty to manslaughter. both were originally charged with second-degree murder.
b.c. supreme court judge michael tammen said sangan had been in an extramarital relationship with haydari when he “obtained various videos and photographs of ms. haydari of an intimate nature,” the judgment read. “in the days leading up to the killing, mr. sangan and his partner, sophia soltani, created a fake social media account in ms. haydari’s name and sent links to various family members of ms. haydari.”
jafari and haydari, both armed with knives, cornered sangan in his car and stabbed him at least 35 times, including several blows after sangan had slumped to the ground outside the vehicle. he died at the scene.
after the revenge porn was posted, haydari went to police for help “but received none,” tammen said. jafari met with sangan’s partner trying to resolve things “but that meeting was wholly unproductive.”
on the day of the killing, sangan asked haydari to meet and she agreed in the hope that he would turn over the photos and videos and stop his campaign to shame her. both jafari and haydari arrived at the meeting place, a commercial area on east 1st avenue near boundary road in burnaby.
much of what ensued was captured on security videos along with limited audio, the judge noted.
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haydari went to sangan’s car to talk, and she grabbed his cellphone and threw it out the window. sangan assaulted haydari “by slapping her and grabbing her neck and face area.” jafari ran from his car toward sangan’s while slipping the knife from his sleeve to his hand.
“once he arrived at the car door, mr. jafari immediately started making stabbing motions at mr. sangan’s torso with the knife as mr. sangan was attempting to exit the car. at least two of those jabs caused injury. ms. haydari was yelling ‘no’ at mr. jafari repeatedly and volubly during that initial assault.”
she got out of the car and tried unsuccessfully to pull jafari away.
sangan, still in the driver’s seat, managed to get jafari into a headlock and said he would kill him. jafari said the same.
“the second part of the assault was perpetrated by both mr. jafari and ms. haydari as the three combatants exited the vehicle,” the ruling said. they wrestled and haydari can be seen stabbing sangan in the back and shoulder. jafari encourages her, saying, “hit him.”
all three went to ground with sangan face down on the curb. a parked minivan obscured video footage of the rest of the attack, “largely perpetrated” by jafari. as jafari continued to make stabbing motions, haydari stopped and “appeared distraught. she spoke with a bystander who had exited her car and asked that 911 be called.”
soon after, jafari “rose to his feet, appearing exhausted” — but returned to sangan and finished the attack. that wasn’t recorded on video but was seen by a bystander, who said jafari continued poking sangan’s back with a knife, “whispered something in mr. sangan’s ear, then stabbed him once more in the back.”
jafari took out his cellphone, took a photo of sangan’s body, and sent it to soltani with a text in farsi reading, “you’re next, don’t choke.”
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a large group of people descended on the scene carrying pipes and sticks, and jafari and haydari ran off. both returned quickly and surrendered. the knives were found in their car.
in sentencing, tammen said he relied on a victim impact statement from soltani, sangan’s fiancée at the time, as well as from her then nine-year-old son. the judge said sangan had been the only father figure for the boy since he was a baby.
jafari, an afghani born and raised in iran, married haydari in iran in 2016 and both came to canada in 2022. they have two children aged six and eight, including a son with autism. both children are in the care of the ministry of children and family development.
at the time of the killing, jafari was working as a flooring installer. since then, he’s been at the north fraser pretrial centre and has been a “model inmate,” including taking rehabilitative programs.
jafari has “expressed his remorse and apologized for his actions.”
the crown was seeking a lengthy sentence, calling it aggravated manslaughter warranting 10 to 11 years. jafari’s defence said a fit sentence would be four years.
tammen rejected much of the defence’s rationale, including that jafari’s children amount to “exceptional circumstances” and that they should be reunited as quickly as possible.
“i disagree. the situation with the two young children is certainly unfortunate and on one level heartbreaking,” wrote tammen. but the children aren’t “legally significant” in arriving at a sentence, he said. the judge also refused to grant jafari more than 1.5 times credit for pretrial custody on the basis of hardship.
tammen said sentencing for manslaughter is often challenging because the offence ranges from “split-second poor judgment, near accident, to prolonged and brutal assault with weapons, near murder.”
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he said jafari’s case is clearly aggravated manslaughter as the attack was “prolonged and sustained. part of that assault involved two armed assailants repeatedly stabbing a single unarmed victim” — including finishing the attack while the victim lay on the ground “completely helpless.”
while his initial intent was to defend haydari, jafari’s use of force was excessive and “can safely be labelled grossly disproportionate. “the level of callousness with which mr. jafari ended the attack, including photographing the body of mr. sangan and sending the photo to ms. soltani, was extreme.”
jafari also received a 10-year firearms prohibition, must submit to a dna sample, and has a no-contact order with soltani and her son.
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