MONTREAL - The lawyer representing Hamed Shafia, 21, filed a notice on Tuesday afternoon to appeal his client's four murder convictions, hinting that his parents may follow suit.

Along with Mohammad Shafia, 58, and his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, Hamed was convicted on Sunday of the first-degree murder of his three sisters and his father's first wife.

The four were found dead on June 30, 2009 in a car submerged at the bottom of the Rideau Canal in Kingston.

The most stoic of the three Shafias, Hamed's lawyer confirmed that his client was "very disappointed with the verdict." Each of the Shafias was sentenced to life imprisonment, with 25-years before they could apply for parole.

Hamed's attorney, Patrick McCann, said the appeal would centre on the admissibility of what he called "hearsay evidence from the victims and expert evidence on honour killings."

The appeal could take up to a year before it is heard in court.

Earlier Tuesday, the Afghan Embassy in Ottawa called the deaths of Hamed's three teenage sisters and their father's first wife "a heinous crime against humanity."

The Afghan embassy added this kind of crime is not part of Afghan or Islamic culture.

The Shafias left Afghansitan before they settled in Montreal.

With files from The Canadian Press.