{"id":2647,"date":"2007-07-20T15:40:33","date_gmt":"2007-07-20T15:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/07\/20\/life-sentences-for-honour-killing-father-and-uncle\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T16:56:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:56:48","slug":"life-sentences-for-honour-killing-father-and-uncle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/07\/20\/life-sentences-for-honour-killing-father-and-uncle\/","title":{"rendered":"Life sentences for honour killing father and uncle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"210\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"235\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/Banaz'Murder1'.jpg\"\/>THE FATHER and uncle of a 20-year-old Muslim girl have today begun life sentences for her murder.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mahmod Mahmod, 54, and his brother Ari, 51, will serve life sentences alongside third killer Mohamad Hama, 30, for the brutal murder of Banaz Mahmod.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mahmod was told he would serve at least 20 years in jail, Ari 23 years and Hama 17 years.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The young Kurdish Muslim was raped and tortured for two hours by Hama and two other men, on the orders of her father and uncle who disapproved of Banaz having a boyfriend. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker, said: &#8220;This was a barbaric and callous crime. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;You are hard and unswerving men to whom apparently the respect from the community is more important that your own flesh and blood.&#8221; <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Shocking details of the last few hours of Banaz\u2019s life came to light yesterday in which a court heard how Hama was secretly recorded in a conversation with a friend in prison in which he described raping and torturing the 20-year-old. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>He admitted &#8220;slapping&#8221; and &#8220;f***ing&#8221; Banaz, who was subjected to degrading sex acts by the trio \u2013 two of whom fled to Iraq shortly after the Banaz\u2019s body was found buried in a suitcase in Birmingham. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Hama continued: Ari (the uncle) said there is no one there. There was someone there, Biza (her sister). The bastard lied to us.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;I swear to God it took him more than two hours. Her soul and her life would not leave. &#8220;The wire was thick and the soul would not just leave like that. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;We could not remove it. All in all it took five minutes (to strangle) her. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul out. I saw her stark naked, without wearing pants or underwear.&#8221; <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>In another taped conversation Hama is heard describing taking the suitcase which contained Banaz\u2019s body out of the family home and into a waiting car. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;The road was crowded. The police came past. People were passing by &#8211; and we were dragging the bag. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;I almost ran away. Mr Ari (was dragging it) and we were around by each side of him. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;You know what it was, sticking out, her elbow, her hair was falling out so much. That was a stupid thing, a silly thing.&#8221; <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>During the three-month trial of Mahmod and Ari the jury was told Banaz had written to the police four times telling them she feared for her life. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>She had written names of those she believed would kill her \u2013 including Hama who eventually admitted to her murder. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The jury heard how her fears were dismissed by a female officer who believed she was making up the accusations to get attention from her boyfriend. The female officer is just one of a few officers who are now being investigated over the handling of the case. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Chilling mobile phone footage of Banaz taken by her boyfriend Rahmat Suleimani in which she accused her father and uncle of trying to kill her was also played in court. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"210\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"232\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/Banaz'Murder2'.jpg\"\/>The footage, which was filmed on New Years Eve 2005, showed a clearly distressed Banaz fearing for her life. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Speaking into the camera she said her father had given her brandy to drink before returning to the room wearing gloves.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>When he left Banaz managed to escape from the house and ran barefoot to a local caf\u00e9 where she broke down in tears.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The court heard that despite the incident Banaz had decided to return home and continued her relationship with Mr Suleimani. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>But when he was threatened by associates of her uncle she contacted police who urged her to stay in a safe house. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Banaz refused, the jury was told, believing she would be safe at home with her mother. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The following day she disappeared from her home and was reported missing by her boyfriend. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Three months later her badly decomposed body was found in a suitcase buried in the garden of a home in Handsworth, Birmingham. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Both Mahmod and Ari had been previously arrested in connection with Banaz\u2019s murder but were released. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>But on 30 April 2006 both men were rearrested and charged with murder. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><strong><font color=\"#ff0000\">Related Articles:<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/article.aspx?ArticleID=410\">Investigation into handling of \u2018honour killing\u2019<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/article.aspx?ArticleID=401\">Suitcase father guilty of daughters\u2019 murder<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/article.aspx?ArticleID=284\">\u2018Honour killing\u2019 victim accuses father and uncle<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE FATHER and uncle of a 20-year-old Muslim girl have today begun life sentences for her murder. &#13; Mahmod Mahmod, 54, and his brother Ari, 51, will serve life sentences alongside third killer Mohamad Hama, 30, for the brutal murder of Banaz Mahmod. &#13; Mahmod was told he would serve at least 20 years in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}