Pakistan-born parents guilty of murdering ‘westernised’ British daughter

[Toramana]

LONDON:A jury found the Pakistani parents of a teenage girl guilty of murder Friday, a conviction that came after the girl’s sister turned against her parents, telling a jury how her mother and father suffocated 17-year-old Shafilea with a plastic bag in a so-called honor killing.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed face life in prison for killing their daughter in 2003.

The Chester Crown Court found that Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed killed her daughter in 2003 and dumped her body.

Shafilea’s sister Alesha told the jury that her parents pushed Shafilea and then she heard her mother say, ”just finish it here.”

British authorities investigated hundreds of cases of forced marriages last year.

Some of the cases have ended up in so-called honor killings where relatives believe girls have brought shame on their families, sometimes for refusing marriage, other times for becoming too westernized.

Shafilea was only 10 when she began to rebel against her parents’ strict rules, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis.

Schoolmates described how she would wear western clothes and change before her parents picked her up.

Those same schoolmates also reported that Shafilea often went to school crying, describing how her mother would slap her and throw things at her.

But it was the last year of her life that was to be the most traumatic, the court heard. Shafilea began seeing boys, which prompted her parents to keep her at home more.

Despite multiple reports to social services, Shafilea’s file was closed in 2002.

Between November 2002 and January 2003, Shafilea told friends and teachers there had been an increase of assaults.

In February 2003, she ran away with her boyfriend Mushtaq Bagas and told council officers she needed emergency accommodation as her parents were trying to force her into an arranged marriage with her cousin.

In the same month, her parents took her to Pakistan where she drank bleach in protest against the arranged marriage. When she returned to Britain in May 2003, she was admitted to a hospital because of damage done to her throat. She was eventually released, but rows over her clothing continued.

Eventually, her parents beat her, stuffed a thin white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her mouth and nose until she ”was gone,” her sister testified. The highest incidence of reported forced marriages is in Muslim communities.

Britain is home to more than 1.8 million Muslims.

http://dawn.com/2012/08/03/parents-guilty-of-murdering-westernised-british-daughter/

[Toramana]

US man shot ex-wife's British husband in front of children
Cristobal Palacio's daughter said he smiled as he shot Paul Winter, 42, from Tunbridge Wells dead in Miami

A man has been convicted of shooting his ex-wife's British husband in front of her children.

Cristobal Palacio's 10-year-old daughter told jurors in the US that he had "smiled" as he shot 42-year-old Paul Winter, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in October 2008, according to the Miami Herald.

Winter died in front of his wife, Jennifer, and her twins, who were six years old at the time, after being shot six times, including twice in the back, at Palacio's home in Kendall, Miami, Florida, the paper said.

Palacio denied murder, claiming he had shot Winter in self-defence, and told the jury sitting at Miami's Gerstein Justice Building that the graphic designer had threatened him with a gun on two occasions.

But the court heard that Winter had been unarmed at the time and had driven with his wife to Palacio's home to deliver the children for a court-arranged access visit. Winter's wife said her husband did not own a gun, the Herald said.

A ballistics expert told the court that, based on the evidence of Winter's wounds, the gun Palacio used could have only been fired from 3ft away, the report added.

The jury also heard that the bullets which entered Winter's back were contact wounds, meaning he had to have been against a hard surface when he was shot, according to the paper.

Palacio was charged with the more serious count of first-degree murder but jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life without parole under Florida law, BBC Kent reported.

Palacio, who worked as a fraud investigator for Citibank for more than 25 years, was also convicted of two counts of child abuse, as a result of his children having witnessed the shooting from a van parked near their father's home, according to the Herald.

The court was told that Winter had moved to Miami and married his killer's ex-wife a year earlier. At the time of the shooting, a divorce settlement agreement was being finalised, the paper said.

Winter, who has a child in the UK from a previous relationship, was in the process of applying for US residency and the family had planned to set up a bed and breakfast business, jurors heard.

Miami-Dade circuit judge Leon M Firtel will sentence Palacio next week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/04/us-man-shot-husband-children

[Toramana]

The Ahmed family originate from the village of Uttam, in the Gujrat region of Pakistan. They are Sunni Muslims and their first language is Punjabi.

14 July 1986 Shafilea Ahmed, the first child of cousins Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, is born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Iftikhar has an older son, Tony, with a Danish woman he married.

10 March 1998 Shafilea first comes to the attention of the police when she and her younger sister are reported missing from home by her parents. They return the same day.

3 October 2002 Teachers learn that Shafilea is being held against her will at home and prevented from attending school. They speak to her father who allows her to return to class.

25 November 2002 Shafilea runs away from home and her parents report her missing. She is found with her bags in a park and has a meeting with her parents at school. She returns home after spending a night with a friend.

3 February 2003 Shafilea runs away again and stays with friends, before she is taken in by social services.

5 February 2003 She registers as homeless, citing fears she will be forced into an arranged marriage in Pakistan. The document is signed.

10 February 2003 She returns home after her father attends school.

18 February 2003 Shafilea travels to Pakistan with her father and two siblings for a family holiday. While there, she swallows bleach and is admitted to hospital

19 March 2003 Her father returns home with her two siblings and cashes in Shafilea's return ticket for £250.

27 May 2003 She returns to the UK and is taken by ambulance to hospital after her father dials 999. She is admitted to the intensive care unit.

3 September 2003 Shafilea enrols at Priestley College and begins a part-time job at the Manweb call centre in Warrington.

5 September 2003 She attends hospital for treatment to her damaged throat.

11 September 2003 She goes missing from her family home after finishing her shift at the call centre. Her disappearance is not reported by her parents.

18 September 2003 She is reported missing by Joanne Code, her former teacher, after she overhears her younger siblings and schoolfriends raise concerns about her welfare.

18 December 2003 Her parents are arrested along with five other members of her extended family for allegedly perverting the course of justice. They are all later released without charge.

4 February 2004 A body is found on the banks of the river Kent in Sedgwick, Cumbria, by three workmen after a flood.

23 February 2004 The body is identified as that of Shafilea and a murder investigation is launched.

11 January 2008 A four-day inquest into her death concludes with a verdict of unlawful killing.

25 August 2010 A robbery occurs at the Ahmeds' home. Shafilea's sister Alesha is arrested on suspicion of robbery.

31 August 2010 Alesha Ahmed provides a witness statement implicating her parents in Shafilea's death.

2 September 2010 The couple are arrested on suspicion of murder and bailed pending further inquiries.

7 September 2011 They answer bail and are charged with murder. They are remanded in custody.

15 September 2011 They are released on bail by Manchester crown court.

21 May 2012 The murder trial begins at Chester crown court.

9 July 2012 Farzana Ahmed changes her witness statement, sacks her defence solicitors and implicates her husband in a single attack on their daughter. She claims she tried to intervene but was punched.

August 2012 The couple are found guilty of murder.

[Toramana]

By any standards, the murder of Shafilea Ahmed has torn her family apart.

Ten years ago, the ultra-strict Pakistani couple Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed had five children – four girls and a boy. Now, one daughter is dead, one is estranged and a protected witness, and their youngest daughter is in local authority care.

Only their son Junyad, 22, and daughter Mevish, 21, have remained loyal to their parents. But the credibility of Mevish Ahmed was questioned during the murder trial at Chester crown court when it emerged she had made silent phone calls to a friend who was a prosecution witness, in an apparent attempt to intimidate her. She also had previous issues with drug use and had been accused of stealing from her family.

The couple's second oldest daughter, Alesha Ahmed, now 24, has probably caused the biggest family rift. She organised a bizarre armed robbery at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in August 2010, in an apparent cry for help after carrying the secret of her sister's murder for seven years. The robbery led to a crucial breakthrough in the police investigation as until that point, the evidence against the couple had been entirely circumstantial.

Iftikhar was out at the time of the robbery and 49-year-old Farzana was in the house with her children when the men burst in and tied everyone up [apart from Alesha]. The family realised something was amiss as the robbers also knew Alesha's name. Cheshire police were called and she was arrested. She admitted her role in the robbery and told officers that she had watched her parents kill her sister.

The couple had initially told the same story to the authorities. According to their account of events, their daughter had run away from home for a final time and they were not involved in her disappearance nor death.

But on 9 July, Farzana changed her account. She effectively pointed the finger at her husband, Iftikhar, saying he was involved in a single, violent assault on their daughter on the night she went missing. She told the court that as far as she was aware, Shafilea was safe and well. Her husband had asked her never to question him about it again unless "she valued her dear life". The couple, who had left to go home every day at the conclusion of court proceedings, were both remanded in custody as one parent was testifying against the other. In the witness box, Iftikhar Ahmed maintained he still loved his wife, no matter what she said.

Mevish rubbished her sister Alesha's version of events as lies. She had been due to be called as a defence witness, but it emerged she had been attempting to contact one of her friends, a prosecution witness, making silent calls.

However, Mevish was called as a witness by the judge. The court was shown papers she had written in 2008 that depicted her sister's death, using characters with the same names as her family. Mevish dismissed them as "fiction" and "free writing." The papers had been given to her friend, Shahin Munir, who went to the police.

In one extract from her writings, Mevish wrote: "Three times she ran, but they got her." Another said: "She didn't do nothing. Shouting, time after time. What did she do? That's it, space of one to two minutes – gone."

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, suggested it should be called: "How my parents killed my sister." Mevish replied: "No, it is not based on me or my family. It is just chat – just random stuff." She admitted using the names "but that doesn't mean it is about us".

Mevish admitted asking her friend to return the documents but said she had kept photocopies. Earlier, she denied witnessing her parents killing her sister.

The free writing included: "They treated her like ****. Even when she was a kid, she'd get beaten. I'd do anything to change that night. I wish I'd never seen, but I did. I even seen the suitcase they took her in. They knocked me over and smacked me coz I seen."

"How did that happen coz I was there. Why didn't I stop it. Imagine if people knew what I was writing now. That's it. I'd be gone."

When it was put to Mevish that she saw her mother and father kill her sister, she replied: "No, I didn't. No."

In August 2008, Mevish met Munir, who took a note of the conversation. "They sat her down in a chair and her Dad went mad," Munir's note said. "He started proper hitting her. Mevish tried to stop it, but her Mum pushed her away. They used the plastic bag to suffocate her and one or two minutes, she was gone."

Junyad told the court his sister Alesha's account of events was "a pack of lies". He denied saying that Shafilea "deserved it". He had not played any part in his sister's death or been involved in a cover-up. He denied the prosecution's assertion that he was taking his father's side and sticking to "a family lie".

Asked what he thought about his mother's allegations, he replied: "Well obviously, I think it's a lie what she is saying. But that's her personal account to give."

Another sister, who was seven at the time and cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she could not remember the night of her sister's disappearance. She was called by the defence after her mother changed her account.

She admitted saying to Alesha last December that she wanted a magic wand to change everything so they could be a "normal family."

When the younger girl had her ears pierced, her parents said she had brought shame on the family. They reacted "like anybody else would – with shock," she said.

She said her mother "wore the pants" in the Ahmed household. And she denied being able to remember what happened the night Shafilea disappeared.

In the witness box, Iftikhar said he had never harmed his daughter, contrary to his wife's revised defence statement. He specifically denied a claim that he harmed Shafilea on 11 September 2003.

What his wife was saying was not the truth. "She's still my wife and I love her to bits," he said. The couple never got any rest from the questions and the "constant media attention, police presence, social services presence every day," he said, meaning they were unable to grieve properly. The children were taunted at school. "The way the inquiry was, it was constant finger-pointing, like the parents are involved one way or another."

Her father said when a body was found in February 2004 he couldn't believe it. He and his wife hoped it was somebody else. He said his daughter was "absolutely brilliant" education-wise. Her character was very bubbly, very talkative.

With both parents jailed for life, the divisions in the Ahmed family will continue. The remaining children have lost both a sister and their parents.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/03/shafilea-ahmed-murder-background?intcmp=239

[Toramana]

Parents convicted of the honour killing of their daughter were sent to jail for life today and told they had sought to keep the teenager in the "sealed cultural environment" of rural Pakistan rather than modern Britain.

The judge at Chester Crown Court said Iftikhar Ahmed and his wife Farzana's fear of being shamed by their community was greater than their love for their daughter.

Shafilea Ahmed, 17, was suffocated at her home in Warrington, Cheshire in 2003 after her Pakistani-born parents stuffed a plastic bag into her mouth in front of their four other children.

It followed years of abuse against the westernised teenager. Whilst teachers informed social services three times of her plight as she appeared at school covered in cuts and bruises and repeatedly ran away from home. But on each occasion she returned to her parents.

Despite being the immediate suspects in the case, it took nine years to bring the Ahmeds to justice after police faced a wall of silence both within the family and the community.

They were only convicted after Shafilea's sister Alesha, now aged 22, gave evidence against her parents in court.

Sentencing them to serve at least 25 years in prison Mr Justice Roderick Evans said the couple's expectation that she live in a "sealed cultural environment separate from the culture of the country in which she lived was unrealistic, destructive and cruel".

They had killed her in a fit of rage after she refused to obey them over an arranged marriage and other issues, the judge added.

"You wanted your family to live in Pakistan in Warrington. Although she went to local schools, you objected to her socialising with girls from what has been referred to as the white community," he said.

"You objected to her wearing western clothes and you objected to her having contact with boys. She was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose on her," the judge added.

He said the Ahmeds had "blighted the lives" of their other children forcing their younger daughter Mevish to come to court and lie on their behalf.

Alesha would be "unlikely to be able to avoid the legacy of her upbringing," while it was impossible to tell whether their son Junyad, who continued to back them, was either doing so out of "filial affection or the result of the warped values you instilled in him," he said.

Both Mevish and Junyad and the youngest child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wept as their parents were convicted. Mrs Ahmed, 49, changed her story during the trial. After years of insisting she believed her daughter had run away and been murdered by someone else she said she had witnessed Mr Ahmed, 52, beating Shafilea on the night of her disappearance. She said she could not speak out because she too feared for her life.

Edwina Harrison, independent chair of the Warrington Safeguarding Children Board, said procedures had been changed since Shafilea's murder and now 16-year-olds who presented themselves as homeless as the teenager did would be assessed along with a social worker present while agencies now work more closely together.

Speaking after the verdicts, Shafilea's close friend, Melissa Powner, who had helped her try and escape her parents, described the pain of having to watch as her "killers roamed free".

"If there is one thing that we pray will come from this, it is that her beautiful face and tragic story will inspire others to seek help and make them realise that this kind of vile treatment, no matter what culture or background they are from, is not acceptable and there is a way out," she said.

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Manchester-based Ramadhan Foundation, said: "Honour killings go against Islam. Islam totally forbids honour killings, it forbids forced marriages and if anybody thinks somehow that they are doing these actions as a result of their faith, then they are seriously misguided."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/iftikhar-and-farzana-ahmed-jailed-for-life-for-murdering-their-daughter-shafilea-8005179.html

[Afghanistan2010]

Are you desperatly trying to win attention for this thread ? while we had more than once this issue,it is just boring.

[Toramana]

I would be the last person trying to win attention of a boof raised by his family in some London gheto in the same way the family above did.

[Badlun]

This is a real issue for Muslims and Pashtuns. In the Muslim and Pashtun worlds they don't have material prosperity and they have to go to the secular modern developed world for their fortunes and then they face situations like this. Parents come with strict conventional retrogressive backgrounds while kids grow up in the democratic liberal and progressive modern society. The generation gap entails in such horrible events.

The solution is that Pashtuns or Muslims may not immigrate to these so called Kafir lands or if they immigrate then they have to adopt the culture and society where they live. No other option is there. Yes they can maintain their religion in their private lives but they cant create a Pakistan or Afghanistan in Europe or America.

[Afghanistan2010]

So westerns who come to the muslim world,should also adopt muslim culture and attitued,otherwise should be seperated or kicked out of society.....yeah right approach.

[Badlun]

Except some terrorists in Waziristan or Afghanistan I don't know of any westerners that will immigrate to the Muslim world to reside over there. What attraction Muslim world has for westerners. If you find them in Dubai etc , there you don't have the typical environment you find in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Yes if a westerner goes to Muslim world they must respect the culture, religion, laws and society where they work or live. But Muslim world should think on separating religion from politics, society and culture so that they can also become like developed world and their citizens don't have to go the West for their livelihood.

[Friend]

This is what happens at the end when children get westernized. This is a really tough situation for those who have some honor (ghairat) in their hearts, others don't care.

[Tjanaparh]

Honour does not depend on what others think about You, honour relates you to yourself, for not being ashamed yourself if you look in the mirror!
Society, excuse me if I say it rude, is like prostitute and what today they respected tomorrow they hate and so on. Honour cannot rely on the oppinion on other, that is not honour but being coward to face these others. I am not talking like that, I take it out of experience even from my own and my wifes family, where the people are not so far in their way of thinking like those described here, and i had very hot discussions with such people.
It is their child, if something gets wrong, it is even if not singularly even their fault.
How can a person kill his child out of cowardice from others opinion and out of his own erors in educating the child? Where is honour there, honour means being strong even in the worst situation not to loose controll over your mind and stay a man and a human.

[Toramana]

The solution is that Pashtuns or Muslims may not migrate to these so called Kafir lands or if they migrate then they have to adopt the culture and society where they live. No other option is there. Yes they can maintain their religion in their private lives but they cant create a Pakistan or Afghanistan in Europe or America.

Yes, that is the main point. If you cannot integrate into the host society what is the point of immigrating? These people want the comfort and security of Western and other advanced countries but the archaism of the societies of their origin. And their lives are also not very happy in most of the cases.

Most of them end-up doing odd jobs like tax-driving etc. even when they are educated and have good jobs back home. They could better contribute to their home societies if they don't immigrate , stay back, and use their skills there, and transform their societies.

But Western media is also in the habit of making a mountain out of a mole. Obviously, such demonization serves the Social Darwinist geopolitics very well.

[faye]

how does murdering ones child/sister in any way relate to 'honour'?
it's a shame they don't have 'love' in their hearts, because if they did, they would never be able to harm their child/sister.

[Tjanaparh]

Such "honour" killings happen sometimes in Europe too, and in RUssia even more often.