UK:
Banaz Mahmod's father gets 20 years for "honour killing"
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UK: Banaz Mahmod's father gets 20 years
for "honour killing" 20.7.2007
July
20, 2007
London, UK, -- The father of a Kurdish woman
tortured, raped and murdered in a "barbaric and
callous" honour killing was jailed for at least 20
years on Friday.
Banaz Mahmod's father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and her
uncle Ari Mahmod, 51, who received a 23-year minimum
sentence, were found guilty of murder last month.
A third man, Mohamad Hama, 31, pleaded guilty to
murder and will spend at least 17 years in jail.
The 20-year-old
was raped and garrotted during
an ordeal lasting more than 2-1/2 hours at her
family home in south London last year.
She had told police four times she feared for her
life after falling in love with a man of whom her
family disapproved, but her claims were not taken
seriously, the court heard.
Sentencing the three to life at the Old Bailey,
Judge Brian Barker said: "This offence was designed
to carry a wider message to the community to
discourage legal behaviour of girls and women in
this country.
"Having endured a short and unhappy marriage she
made the mistake of falling in love with a Kurdish
man that you and your community thought was
unsuitable.
"So, to restore your so-called family honour you
decided she should die and her memory be erased.
This was a barbaric and a callous crime."
The court had heard how she angered her family after
walking out of an abusive arranged marriage which
she entered
aged 17.
She fell in love with an Iranian Kurd, Rahmat
Suleimani, 28, meeting him in secret and swapping
messages several
times a day.
Members of her family and several family friends
plotted her murder.
Hama carried out the killing and arranged for the
body to be buried in a suitcase six feet beneath a
house in Birmingham.
Detectives were led to Birmingham after checking
suspects' telephone records and fitting a tracker
device to a hire car that Hama was driving.
The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker,
said: "This was a barbaric and callous crime.
You are hard and unswerving men to whom apparently
the respect from the community is more important
that your own flesh and blood."
Mr Sulemani and Banaz's sister Bekhal, 22, made
moving statements to the court during which they
broke down several times.
Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha, Found dead, brutally
killed by her family. Banaz had left her husband and
fall in love with an Iranian Kurd.
A combination of undated handout images showing (L)
Ari Mahmod and Mahmod Mahmod, released to Reuters on
June 11, 2007. Mahmod Mahmod was convicted in a
London court on Monday of murdering his 20-year-old
daughter in a so-called "honour killing" because she
had left her husband and fallen in love with another
man. Reuters
Flash Video - Sky News
They both said they were haunted by nightmares of
her death and their lives would never be the same
again.
After being taken to hospital following a previous
attempt on her life, Mr Sulemani recorded her fears
on his mobile phone.
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