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UK: Sister of Banaz Mahmod 'honour Kurdish
victim' says she was threatened
30.3.2007
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March 30, 2007
London, -- The sister of a young Kurdish
woman allegedly murdered by her family in a
so-called honour killing described yesterday how she
had been told she deserved to be “turned to ashes”.
Testifying from behind a screen at the Old Bailey,
Bekhal Mahmod, 22, said that she had been threatened
by her uncle after she had been seen with a man,
though she said he was just a friend.
Then a schoolgirl, she was sitting in her bedroom
with her parents and her uncles, she told the court.
“He said if I was your father you would have been
turned to ashes by now. He was saying, ‘He is
scared, but I am not, ask the police. Your father’s
your father. I would have done it by now. I would
have killed you by now, got rid of you. You would
have turned to ashes by now’. I started crying.”
Mahmod Mahmod, 52, is on trial for the murder of his
daughter, Banaz, 20, whose body was found in a
suitcase buried in a back garden in Birmingham last
year. It is alleged that she was murdered by her
family because she had fallen in love with a man
they did not want her to marry.
Mahmod Mahmod and the sisters’ uncle, Ari Mahmod,
50, of Mitcham, South London, deny murder. Ari and
Darbaz Maref-Rasull, 24, of Hounslow, West London,
also deny conspiracy to pervert justice.
The jury has been told that Mohamad Hama, 30, of
West Norwood, South London, an associate of Ari, had
pleaded guilty to the murder.
Banaz Mahmod, 20, was convinced her family was going
to kill her, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.
Detectives launched a murder inquiry after Miss
Mahmod, an Iraqi Kurd, went missing from the family
home in Mitcham on January 23 last year. |
Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha, Found dead The daughter,
who had left her husband
The father- Mahmod Mahmod, who denies murder |
It was not until April
28 that her body was found in a suitcase more than
100 miles away, having lain undiscovered for months
after she was strangled with a shoelace and dumped
in a makeshift grave.
The court heard on Tuesday that archeology
specialists from Birmingham University were called
in to look for areas of disturbed ground in
Alexandra Road, Handsworth, Birmingham after Banaz
vanished.
Detectives, who suspected family members, were led
to the house after fitting a tracking device to the
car of Mohamad Hama, 30, an associate of Banaz's
uncle Ari Mahmod.
The court heard how the suitcase was buried 160cm
underground before furniture was piled on top, and
that it must have taken at least two people to dig
the hole.
It is claimed Banaz was killed by a group of men
including her father Mahmod Mahmod, 50, and uncle
Ari Mahmod, 52, after she left her arranged marriage
and fell in love with Rahmat Suleinmani, an Iranian
Kurd.
Psychiatrist Dr Sammy Elkary told jurors on Tuesday
how Banaz had taken an overdose of anti-depressants
and tried to hang herself with a scarf in the summer
of 2005 because of anxiety surrounding her failing
marriage, but family members had stopped her.
The doctor said that by December 2005 Banaz was
happier and wanted to come off anti-depressants.
Ari Mahmod, of Sandy Lane, Mitcham and Mahmod Mahmod,
of Morden Road, Wimbledon, south London, both deny
murder.
Ari Mahmod and Darbaz Maref-Rasull, of Glenwood
Road, Hounslow, Middlesex, both deny conspiracy to
pervert the course of justice.
Mohamad Hama of Uffington Road, West Norwood, has
already pleaded guilty to the murder.
Pshtewan Hama, 26, of Cambridge Close, Hounslow, who
was described as a friend of Maref-Rasull and Rahmat
Suleimani, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
pervert the course of justice.
Both men will be sentenced at the end of the trial.
The trial continues.
timesonline co.uk | yourlocalguardian co.uk
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