Man gets 20 years after murdering sister who chose husband from wrong caste
Riazat Butt Saturday July 15, 2006 The Guardian Samaira Nazir knew well that her parents would disapprove. She wanted to marry her Afghan boyfriend, rather than someone from the family circle, and she was prepared to fight for him too. So were they. Yesterday, Ms Nazir's brother was jailed for at least 20 years for her murder and her cousin, who is 17, will serve 10 years for his role in her death last April. The "honour killing", which took place at home in front of her parents, was carried out with four knives, as she was pinned down, and left her with 18 stab wounds and three separate cuts to her throat. The Old Bailey heard the method was "barbaric". Jurors were told the family disapproved of Ms Nazir's boyfriend, Salman Mohammed, because of his caste and they were so determined to split the pair up that when the couple announced their engagement, Ms Nazir's father, Azhar, lunged at Mr Mohammed with a knife and threatened to kill him. Her brother Azhar Nazir, a 30-year-old greengrocer, threatened to "get" the couple if they married, even if they were abroad. He was, the court heard, so incensed that his sister had turned down the suitors waiting for her in Pakistan in favour of the Afghan that he ordered the 25-year-old to come to the family home in Southall, Middlesex. Ready to confront her were her parents, her brother and the 17-year-old cousin, Imran Mohammed. Also present were her brother's daughters aged two and four. Inside the house, faced with angry relatives, Ms Nazir had a heated argument with them about her future, the court heard. The men attacked her, holding on to her to stop her escaping, and acted together to avenge the family honour. Her screams alerted a neighbour, who came to the house and banged on the door, but her father appeared and sent the neighbour away, claiming his daughter was having a fit. Ms Nazir, jurors were told, was heard to shout at her mother, Irshad Begum: "You are not my mother any more." Ms Nazir succeeded in fleeing from her captors, her bloodstained arm emerging briefly from the door, but the men grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back into the house. Her family held her down, tied a silk scarf round her neck, and Imran Mohammed slashed her neck three times. Police who arrived at the house found Ms Nazir slumped in the hallway covered in blood. They also saw the two cousins were splattered with blood and feared they had been forced to watch Ms Nazir's murder as a warning as to what might happen should they fall in love with the wrong man. Azhar Nazir told officers there had been a problem with his sister. He said: "She does not wish to have an arranged marriage. We only allow marriage within the family. My sister wanted to run away from the house and was stopped." <more> http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1821073,00.html?gusrc=rss
