Dead UK teen's sister: Our parents murdered her over Westernized lifestyle/Shafilea Ahmed was allegedly murdered by her parents.Update 07/09/12: Mother says she saw husband abuse Shafilea!!/Both Parents found GUILTY of Murder!!!!

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By ITV News and msnbc.com staff

LONDON -- A young woman has told a court in England that as a child she witnessed her 17-year-old sister being murdered by their parents after a months-long quarrel about the teen's Westernized lifestyle.

Alesha Ahmed, 22, who is in a witness protection program, told a court in Chester, England, that she watched as her parents suffocated Shafilea Ahmed at their family home in Warrington in 2003, ITV News reported.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the court Tuesday that Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49, put their hands over their daughter's face "to close her airways so she could not breathe" and that "she had a bag forced into her mouth."

'Dishonored the family'
Edis said that they murdered their daughter -- after “having spent the best part of 12 months trying to really crush her” – because she had “dishonored the family, bringing shame on them.” The family is of Pakistani origin.

Alesha Ahmed told the court Tuesday that her parents would often argue with their older daughter over the clothes she wore, her friends and who she was speaking to on the phone.

“Shafilea was leading a life she thought our parents would not approve of ... There would be physical abuse directed at Shafilea. It was both of them. My mum more because she was at home more,” she said, according to ITV News.

“There was an incident in the kitchen, she had her hair in a plait and my parents had a knife to scare her. They passed the knife between them. I was in the kitchen then ran off,” she added. “They were just hitting her. It was frantic and out of control and she just sat there taking it. The knife was used to scare her. After I saw she had marks on her neck.”

Alesha Ahmed did not tell police that she had witnessed her sister’s death until 2010 after she was arrested over a robbery at her parents’ house, ITV News reported. She is still to be sentenced over that offense, but Edis said she had not been given “any promises or indeed any inducement prior to when she first made these allegations.”

Edis said her claim was either the truth or “a wicked lie made up to help herself.”

The court heard that police had secretly put a listening device into the Ahmeds’ home in November 2003 when Shafilea Ahmed was still considered as a missing person.
Three Canadians jailed for life for 'honor killings'

Farzana Ahmed was heard telling one of her other children, “if the slightest thing comes out of your mouth, we will be stuck in real trouble. Remember that,” ITV News reported.

'Honor killings' require tougher laws, Iraqi women say
The Guardian newspaper said that Iftikhar Ahmed was heard saying, “By getting the support of newspapers, you can get away with murder.”

Edis said the father was also heard saying “What are they going to find in the car?”, while his wife said “Even if they find saliva in the car, it’s not as if she didn’t sit in the car.”

The dead girl’s body was found beside the River Kent in Cumbria, England, in February 2004.

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A Muslim teenager was murdered by her parents because she refused to let them “crush her will” and resisted their plans for an arranged marriage, a court heard yesterday.
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By Nigel Bunyan6:30AM BST 22 May 2012

Shafilea Ahmed, 17, was killed for bringing “shame” on her Pakistani-born parents by leading a Western way of life and trying to go on dates with boys.
The case came before Chester Crown Court yesterday after her sister broke her eight-year silence and told police she saw her parents kill Miss Ahmed.

The court was told that Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, had spent a year trying to force their daughter to adopt a stricter way of life. They allegedly murdered her at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, on Sept 11, 2003, after deciding they would never succeed.

Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “They finally killed her because she had dishonoured the family and brought shame on them. They had despaired of her ever becoming a daughter they could ever be proud of.”

Mr and Mrs Ahmed both deny murder.

Shafilea Ahmed: Timeline 12 Jan 2008
Miss Ahmed’s badly decomposed body was found in early 2004 beside a river in the Lake District.
Mr Edis said police carried out a lengthy investigation but failed to solve the mystery of her death.
However, in August 2010, Miss Ahmed’s younger sister, Rukish, claimed she had been a witness to the killing. It was, said Mr Edis, the final piece in the puzzle.
Rukish Ahmed, who has since changed her name to Alesha, originally made the allegation to friends shortly after her sister’s disappearance. But she later retracted the claim and would not repeat it for another seven years.

She did so after being arrested for her part in a robbery at her parents’ home. Miss Ahmed, now 23, had been prosecuted over the crime and pleaded guilty.
Mr Edis told the jury: “You will have to decide whether you can really believe what she said or not. If she is telling the truth, she has lived for the last nine years under the most extraordinary circumstances. If she is telling the truth this whole family, since September 2003, has been living in extraordinary circumstances. What an extraordinary thing to say of your parents, if it is true, that you were there and watching them murder your sister.”

Mr Edis described Shafilea Ahmed as “a thoroughly Westernised young British girl” who was reluctant to follow standards set by her parents. “In particular she wanted to have boyfriends like most 16 and 17-year-old girls do, and that caused an intense pressure in the family.

“The prosecution say that her parents embarked upon a campaign of domestic violence and abuse designed to force her to conform so that she would behave in the way they expected.”

Miss Ahmed had twice run away from home in the year before her disappearance, after which she was taken to rural Pakistan, where her parents apparently intended she would get married and remain.

She told friends it was a forced marriage and, while at her grandparents’ home in Pakistan, she swallowed a quantity of bleach, either as an act of self-harm or in a suicide attempt.

Upon her return from Pakistan she began complaining that her parents were being violent towards her.

Mr Edis read extracts from two poems that Miss Ahmed wrote in the months before her disappearance.

One included the line: “All they think about is honour. I was just like a normal kid. I just wanted to fit in. But my culture was different. But my family ignored.”

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Horrible.

Alesha Ahmed tells court that after seven years of being haunted by sister's death she had 'had enough' and decided to speak out

Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 May 2012 10.10 EDT

The parents of Shafilea Ahmed are accused of murdering their daughter Shafilea Ahmed, who did not want to marry a cousin.

The younger sister of the allegedly murdered teenager Shafilea Ahmed told a court that it had been a relief after seven years to tell police that she witnessed her parents kill her.

Giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial at Chester crown court on Thursday, Alesha Ahmed, 23, said there was a delay in telling the police about what happened but she had finally "had enough". It was a relief, she said, to tell the police after seven years of being haunted by her 17-year-old sister's alleged murder.

On Wednesday she told the court how her parents had put a plastic bag in her sister's mouth and held her down after Shafilea had argued with her mother over her choice of western clothing. The alleged murder was witnessed by all four siblings at the family home.

When Alesha was at university she said she felt herself going down the same path as Shafilea with her parents and she thought she, too, would have to go to Pakistan and be married.

"I think I'd just had enough," she told the court. She said relations between her and her parents were "not as extreme" as they had been with Shafilea. But "I did feel myself going down the same path as Shafilea," she said.

"There was the pressure to go to Pakistan. It was just an awful lot of pressure. That is when I decided to speak out."

Her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, sat just feet away in the dock in the well of the wood-panelled courtroom as Alesha gave evidence from behind a screen.

They deny murdering their eldest daughter, Shafilea, at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003. Her badly decomposed remains were discovered beside a flooded Cumbrian river in February 2004. However, it was not until 2010 that Alesha provided the "final piece of the puzzle" about her death, the court has heard, when she was arrested for her role in a robbery at the house. She has pleaded guilty to the offence and will be sentenced at a later date.

The court heard that Alesha made the disclosure that she witnessed the murder to her solicitor and a police officer while she was in custody for the robbery.

Questioned by Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, about why she made the claim after all these years, she replied: "I think at that point I was really suffering with the family … the buildup to the robbery. It all got too much, and to be honest I think it was a relief more than anything to be able to tell someone finally."

Asked why she had kept quiet for all those years, she said: "I think it was not until I went to uni I saw how wrong family life was. When you get used to something, it becomes normal and that's when I saw it wasn't normal, really.

"I think what happened to my sister was wrong but because it's your parents you think it's normal because you still love them. I think at uni I did feel the way my sister had – you want to fit in with everyone else, but you are still being forced to live in a different way. I think that's what made me crack."

She said she was in a state of "emotional distress" when she made the witness statement about the murder and she had to let it out. When she was at university she lived like a western student and returned at weekends and holidays to her parents' home.

Alesha said her parents had set up a number of potential suitors but she refused to marry "someone she didn't know" and her relationship with her mother and father "completely broke down" as it meant either living the way they wanted her to live, or live on her own. "Both were a struggle", she explained to the jury.

When she arranged the robbery, she said she was not thinking properly. On 25 August 2010, three or four masked men burst into the house and searched for money, tying up everyone apart from Alesha.

She told the court she was arrested after her mother and brother told police the thieves had known her name.

"My mental state wasn't very good, being between the two cultures, trying to please everyone." She was behaving out of character and drinking at university. "I was not being myself any more."

The trial continues on Monday, when Alesha will be cross-examined by the defence.

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Chilling testimony turns spotlight on crimes of honour
May 26, 2012

Shafilea Ahmed's parents are on trial for her murder, highlighting a shocking trend of hidden violence, writes Karen Kissane in London.

Her dreams were so ordinary: to be able to wear jeans and T-shirts, to go out with a nice boy, maybe to go to university and do law. But such dreams, for girls like Shafilea Ahmed, can be deadly.

Shafilea (pronounced Shafeela) was pretty and bright and full of spirit but she died at 17, in 2003. She had gone missing from her home in Cheshire, but her Pakistani-born parents did not report her absence to police. Her younger sister Alesha says it was they who killed her - in front of their other children - to save the family honour.

A taxi driver, Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife, Farzana, 49, are now on trial for their daughter's murder. They have pleaded not guilty and the jury is still hearing the evidence.

But the case has turned the spotlight on so-called ''honour'' crimes in some of Britain's migrant communities. About a dozen women a year die in acts of revenge over breaches of ''honour'' that might include refusing to wear traditional clothes or accept an arranged marriage, or choosing a man of whom the family disapproves.

UK police recorded more than 2800 honour attacks in 2010, a figure that is understated because only 39 of the country's 52 police forces revealed their numbers. Among the 12 forces able to provide comparison figures from 2009, there was an overall rise of 47 per cent in such incidents. Five hundred of the attacks were in London.

The figures were released last December by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation following a freedom-of-information request. Due to under-reporting by women, ''the reality is far darker'' than the numbers suggest, says its director, Diana Nammi.

She says the victims are mainly of Asian or Middle Eastern backgrounds but also include Eastern Europeans. They die, or are abused, because ''it's easier to sacrifice a son or a daughter than it is to sacrifice a society or your extended family, who you are trying to please all the time'', one young woman in a refuge recently told the BBC.

The suicide rate among south Asian women in Britain is three times the national average, thought to be the result of women taking what they see as the only way out of an intolerable situation - or being forced to kill themselves.

For Shafilea, her sister claims, death was preceded by months of abuse, including at times starvation, beatings, and threats with a knife. Alesha told the court her parents had drugged Shafilea to make her compliant about getting on a plane back to Pakistan in 2003. When there, Alesha said, ''My mum told Shafilea she would be staying in Pakistan and wouldn't be going back.''

She drank bleach so that she would not be forced into an arranged marriage, Alesha said. Shafilea was flown back to Britain for treatment and spent three months in hospital. Her parents told her to say she had drunk the bleach because she mistook it for mouthwash in the dark, but she reportedly told another patient that she had taken it to avoid marriage.

A former patient, Foisa Aslam, told the court Shafilea had said her parents had accepted a formal offer for her but ''she didn't even love the guy … she wanted to get out of there but they had taken her passport from her''.

Nammi says Britain needs a detailed strategy to deal with honour-based violence. It is more usual for domestic violence to involve only a husband or father, but honour-based violence can have wider groups of perpetrators. ''Sometimes it's not only the very close family - father, mother, brother - but members of the extended family or the wider community can be involved. Sometimes a contract killer or a bounty hunter is hired. Some families will pay other people to track them down and find where they are living, and some will pay to have them killed. That's happened in England a few times.''

She says it will take time to help traditional elements in some communities change their thinking, and meanwhile, the government needs to establish special refuges for women fleeing honour revenge attacks. ''It's not just about domestic violence, it's about the risk of being killed,'' she says. ''Refuges are crucial but in the UK many refuges have closed'' because of funding cuts.

She warns that some welfare organisations make a mistake in trying to mediate between the threatened girls or women and their angry families. But some women who are forced into reconciliation find themselves taken back to their country of origin, she says.

''There are cases of girls under 14 whose families say, 'We won't force her into marriage', and they sign a piece of paper saying that and then the next day the girl disappears. I always advise social services not to negotiate with the family.''

The prosecutor, Andrew Edis, QC, told the Chester Crown Court that this case had taken a long time to come to trial because Alesha, now 23, did not tell her story to police until 2010, when she snapped after being arrested for taking part in a robbery at her parents' home.

He said the jury must decide whether she was finally freeing herself of a dreadful family secret that had haunted her since she was 15, as she claimed - she told the court she had feared suffering Shafilea's alleged fate if she spoke out - or making up ''a wicked lie''.

But he questioned why she would make up such a story. Alesha claimed Shafilea died after a row that began over the fact she had worn a T-shirt to work. Her parents suffocated her by stuffing a carrier bag into her mouth and holding their hands over her nose and mouth so that she couldn't breathe, Alesha said. She claimed she later saw her mother with black bin bags and wide brown tape and saw her father carrying a plastic-wrapped burden out to the car.

More than four months later, Shafilea's badly decomposed remains were discovered near a river in Cumbria.

Alesha told the court her loyalty to her parents began to unravel when she went to university and found herself wanting the same freedoms her sister wanted - but being told the same things by her parents, who wanted her to go back to Pakistan and find a husband.

''That is when I saw that it is not normal and that what happened to my sister was wrong. When it's your own parents, you don't see things like that because you love them.''

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1:26PM, WED 30 MAY 2012 WEEK 2 OF THE SHAFILEA AHMED MURDER TRIAL

- last updated Wed 30 May 2012

Shafilea Ahmed's sister Alesha is being cross examined by the defence teams at Chester Crown Court. Last week she described to the court how she had seen her parents kill Shafilea by suffocating her.

Today she denied that she invented a "wicked" story that the teenager was killed by her parents. Alesha Ahmed told Chester Crown Court she was "torn" between her dead sister and her parents.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, deny murdering 17-year-old Shafilea at the family home in Liverpool Road, Warrington, in September 2003.

The teenager's decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 but it was not until 2010 that Ms Ahmed provided the "final piece of the puzzle" about her death, the prosecution say.

Ms Ahmed, now 23, disclosed that she witnessed the murder to her solicitor and a police officer while she was in custody after arranging a robbery at the Ahmed house, the court heard earlier.

During cross-examination today by Tom Bayliss QC, defending Mr Ahmed, the barrister said:

"You knew you could buy yourself out of trouble by making up a wicked story about your parents."

– TOM BAYLISS QC
Ms Ahmed, giving evidence from behind a screen, replied:

"I don't think the police are stupid enough to go on a story if they haven't got any evidence."

– ALESHA AHMED
The jury were told the robbery, on August 25 2010, saw up to four masked men burst into the house and search for money as Alesha, her mother, brother and sisters were inside.

Ms Ahmed has since pleaded guilty to her part in organising the incident.

Questioned by Mr Bayliss, Ms Ahmed admitted she lied during police interviews about the robbery.

But the police did not believe her story, he said.

He put it to Ms Ahmed that she then played her "trump card" in claiming that Shafilea was killed by their parents.

He added:

"You decided to tell the police that your parents killed your sister and you did it to get yourself out of trouble."

– TOM BAYLISS QC
Sobbing, Ms Ahmed replied:

"It didn't get me out of any trouble.

"At the end of the day I was feeling really torn and I still do feel quite torn.

"It's not a win-win situation.

"I've got my sister who died on one side and my parents, who I care about, on the other."

– ALESHA AHMED
Asked if she was torn because she was not telling the truth about what happened to Shafilea, Ms Ahmed replied: "I feel torn because they are my parents."

Last week Ms Ahmed described how her parents pushed Shafilea on to the settee in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

The couple allegedly murdered their "Westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family, the prosecution say.

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12:44PM BST 31 May 2012

Alesha Ahmed was continuing her evidence at Chester Crown Court where parents, Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, deny murdering 17-year-old Shafilea.

The teenager vanished in September 2003 and her decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004.

It was not until last year that Ms Ahmed provided the ''final piece of the puzzle'' about Shafilea's death, the prosecution say, when she disclosed that she witnessed her parents killing Shafilea at the family home in Liverpool Road, Warrington.

Today, the jury were read passages of Ms Ahmed's first police interview following Shafilea's disappearance.

The witness, who was aged 15 at the time, told officers that she woke up at 7am that morning and saw that Shafilea was gone and that her bag was also missing.

She went on in the interviews to say she did not think her parents had caused any harm to her sister.

Cross-examined about the interview, Tom Bayliss QC, defending Mr Ahmed, said: ''You were telling the truth, weren't you?''

Ms Ahmed, now aged 23, replied: ''No, I was 15-years-old and I was scared of my parents and had just witnessed a murder actually.''

The barrister went on: ''Nobody would expect to see (Shafilea) back if they had seen a murder happen.

''But it didn't happen did it?''

Ms Ahmed said: ''It did happen and we all saw it.''

Mr Bayliss told the court that police asked Ms Ahmed outright if she knew where her sister was.

He added: ''The answer to that, according to you, was that Shafilea is dead.''

The witness replied: ''But was I not telling the truth, I was covering up for my parents.''

Questioned about why Ms Ahmed suggested to police that Shafilea may have been with a male friend, the barrister said: ''The wicked and cruellest thing you could do in those circumstances, knowing someone is dead, is to lay suspicion on a wholly innocent individual.''

Ms Ahmed responded: ''I didn't put suspicion on someone else and I think it is wicked and cruel you are saying it yourself.''

Last week, Alesha described how her parents pushed Shafilea onto the settee in their house and she heard her mother say ''Just finish it here'' as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

The couple allegedly murdered their ''Westernised'' daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family, the prosecution say.

Ms Ahmed made the claim about Shafilea's murder when she was in custody after being arrested for organising a robbery at the Ahmed home in August last year.

Mr Bayliss accused her of lying about the robbery and failing to tell the police who her accomplices were.

He said she was expecting the jury to believe what she was telling them about her parents, but that "time and time again" she had been telling lies.

She replied: "I think it's actually ridiculous that I am on the stand and that my parents don't have the guts to say what they have done.

"They are putting me through all this. I have been very kind to them.

"I have been fair in everything I have said," Ms Ahmed said, adding she told the police that the murder was not about Shafilea being forced into an arranged marriage.
"I have not told a lie. I have said that I have come here to be fair. I think it's out of order that I am being put through this because they can't tell the truth themselves," she said.

The court heard how in the days leading up to the robbery in August 2010 Ms Ahmed - a full time student - was "flush" with money and that £6,500 was paid into one of her bank accounts, on top of cash including student loans being paid into another account.

The jury was told how she paid £1,500 for a Dolce and Gabbana bag as well as "renting" a grey BMW for £400 a week.

She claimed she had saved the money up through a job working at a petrol station, getting paid for doing girls' hair extensions, and from saving on rent when she moved in with her boyfriend.

The court was then told that Ms Ahmed was forced to "pay off" the people who were threatening the robbery with a total of £3,700 in an attempt to stop it from happening.
She said people came to her home, stopped her on her way to work and that once she was driven to Birmingham to draw out money for these "mysterious men".

She said: "I was putting people off to try and stop the robbery... basically I was being pressured.

"Where I was living, people were turning up there. I got myself into a mess and I was having to pay people off."

She told the court that she could not go into the reasons for the pressure and Mr Bayliss accused her of being "evasive".

He said: "You are avoiding naming your accomplices."

She replied: "I don't know who they are. If I knew who they were I would probably be able to help myself a lot more."

The court also heard that Ms Ahmed lied to police by telling them that £2,000 which had been paid out of one of her accounts had gone to charity.

She said: "It was a ridiculous lie. It should not have been told really."

Mr Bayliss said: "It's another ridiculous lie isn't it?"

She replied: "It's a ridiculous lie, yes."

She admitted that she had still not told the police "exactly why everything happened".

The trial continues.

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3:04pm Friday 8th June 2012

A FORMER assistant head teacher at Great Sankey High School has told of the moment Alesha Ahmed told him her parents had killed her sister.

Michael Duggan appeared at Chester Crown Court today and recounted an incident on September 12 2003, the week after sister Shafilea was allegedly murdered.

He received reports Alesha had been arguing with other pupils and as form tutor went to speak to her.

"I asked her to stay behind because she was obviously very upset. She felt as though people were being a little bit unkind to her.

"There was obviously something on her mind. She then went on to say things about her home life, about how Shafilea had gone missing.

"She said her dad was angry and if anybody asks say he killed them and chopped them up into small parts. It took me aback. I asked her if she was being serious and she said well, no."

The court heard that Alesha continued to speak to Mr Duggan and became happier. She left school in a good mood.

A week later she told Mr Duggan Shafilea had called her but then hung up before they spoke. She later described clothes she had taken with her.

During proceedings Me Duggan described Alesha as 'quiet, extremely polite' and 'guarded' about what she said.

He added that as a teenager she failed to own up if she had done something wrong.

Earlier today the court heard from pathologist Alison Armour. She carried out the autopsy on Shafilea after her body was found in Cumbria in February 2004.

She said that the likely cause of death was 'strangulation' or 'smothering'.

Under cross examination Mrs Armour added that the 17-year-old did not die from natural causes.

Court has now been adjourned for the day and the trial will continue on Tuesday.

Iftikhar Ahmed and Farzana Ahmed, of Liverpool Road, Great Sankey deny murder.

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This case really gets to me. Can you all imagine this kind of "life" w/parents who tell you who you are to marry and don't allow you to have any semblance of individuality? This goes on more than we know in some countries and it's truly horrifying. I feel so sorry for the sister who had to witness decades of abuse! I hope the parents rot in hell!

guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 June 2012 09.25 EDT

Alesha Ahmed told a family friend her sister Shafilea was stabbed by their father and the body was "in pieces", a jury has heard.

Shafilea's parents Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, deny murdering the 17-year-old by suffocating her at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

The teenager's decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 but it was not until 2010 that Alesha provided police with the "final piece of the puzzle" about her death, the prosecution said.

Giving evidence on Friday, Sehreen Shafaat, 22, a close friend of the Ahmed children, said Alesha told her that Iftikhar Ahmed stabbed Shafilea.

Law graduate Shafaat, a trainee barrister, told the jury she had known the family as a small child and after Shafilea's death became close to the Ahmeds' other daughters, Alesha and Mevish.

They attended the same college and she would frequently socialise or study with them at their home, the jury heard.

Following a study session, Shafaat said she and Alesha were in her car when Alesha turned to her and said the family "were not getting on".

Shafaat, wearing a black headscarf, said: "Alesha said there was no happiness and although the family looked happy on the outside, it wasn't happy on the inside."

She described Alesha as upset and crying and said: "And then she just came out with 'My dad did it'."

Shafaat said she knew what Alesha was talking about and was shocked, replying: "What?"

"And she said, 'Yeah, my dad killed her'," the witness went on.

"I asked if she was serious and how [it happened]. I didn't mean to ask how but it just came out, I didn't know what to say."

Henry Riding, for the prosecution, asked Shafaat to tell the jury what happened next.

She said she couldn't remember the order in which things were said but told the jury Alesha said "something like", "My dad stabbed her and the body was all in pieces".

"I can't remember if she said she had actually seen her dad stab Shafilea," Shafaat said.

"During the conversation she told me her dad had been violent in the past and she used the word 'strangle' but I can't remember if that was to do with the incident with Shafilea or something else.

"She definitely said the body was in pieces but I can't remember exactly what else she said."

Earlier in the trial, Alesha described how her parents pushed Shafilea on to the sofa in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" in Urdu as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

The couple murdered their "westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family, the prosecution claims.

The trial continues.

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5:49PM, MON 18 JUN 2012

Shafilea's sister 'wrote fiction about parents killing a teenager'

"I swore on her life and lied"; "she was practically thin and dying"; "they treated her like s**t"; "they took her in a suitcase"; "why did the rest sit and watch".

Extracts from a story written by one of the sisters of Shafilea Ahmed, whose body was discovered in February 2003. Mevish Ahmed's seemingly damning story is, according to her testimony today, a work of fiction.

Mevish, 21 has been giving evidence in the trial of her parents Iftikhar Ahmed, 52 and Farzana, 49. They both deny murdering 17-year-old Shafilea at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Mevish is giving evidence for the prosecution after being initially scheduled to be a defence witness.

The letters were written by Miss Ahmed in 2008. In them, she describes "how her parents killed the teenager". They were later given to her friend, Shahin Munir, Chester Crown Court heard.

An example of a piece of writing by Mevish Ahmed
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Credit: Rupert Evelyn/ITV News

When Mevish was questioned about the writings by Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, she claimed they were "free writing".

Mr Edis asked Mevish if she was aware that Ms Munir had given the police "the letters you wrote to her about your sister's death". The witness said:

They are not letters about my sister's death, they are free writing. I write fiction, I write it quite a lot.

Mevish was 12 when her sister disappeared.

Another sister, Alesha, has previously told the court that she witnessed her parents suffocating Shafilea with a plastic bag before loading what she believed to be her body into a car.

The couple murdered their "Westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family, the prosecution say.

Iftikhar and Farzan Ahmed both deny the charge of murder. The case continues.

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I think the younger sister is scared to death. Who could blame her?

19 June 2012 Last updated at 12:02 ET

A sister of Shafilea Ahmed has admitted in court to making silent phone calls to a trial witness.

But Mevish Ahmed denied she was trying to intimidate her friend Shahin Munir, to whom the prosecution say she wrote letters about Shafilea's death.

Ms Ahmed, 21, told Chester Crown Court the silent calls last week were a joke.

Shafilea's parents Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, deny murdering their daughter by suffocating her at their home in Warrington, Cheshire, in 2003.

Speaking on the second day of her evidence, Ms Ahmed said she did not regret writing letters that had only recently been shown to police by Ms Munir which the prosecution says were "letters that you wrote to your friend about your sister's death".

"It's just a story, now it's being taken out of context," she said.

Continuing her evidence, Ms Ahmed denied she was covering up for her parents.

She added: "If they'd done something wrong I wouldn't just sit there and cover for them."

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, told the court of an incident in April 2009 when the witness was arrested on suspicion of stealing money from the family home.

'Beating claims'
He said: "You spoke to Shahin and told her that afterwards you were beaten by your mother and your father, thrown on the floor and they said that you should go to Pakistan right now and talked about finishing you and threatened to kill you."

Miss Ahmed said: "No, I fell outside the house."

Mevish Ahmed said she had presumed Shafilea had "run away" when she was found to be missing
The prosecution alleges Miss Ahmed fell out with her parents but returned home after they promised to withdraw the theft allegation.

Mr Edis said: "You had been arrested and investigated for the theft of £600 from your own house and you said (to Ms Munir), 'I'm going back home, if anything happens to me give police the diary'."

Ms Ahmed replied: "I don't recall that at all."

At the hearing on Monday, Ms Ahmed was asked about a telephone call made to Ms Munir during the second week of her parents' trial, in which the prosecution alleged her friend had apologised for handing documents to the police.

Ms Ahmed initially denied any memory of the call, but then said she had spoken to Ms Munir. She also denied that, during the call, she had "aggressively threatened" her friend and demanded the handing over of diary notes made after a conversation about Shafilea's death in a park in 2008.

'Run away before'
Ms Ahmed has told the jury she had last seen Shafilea on the evening of 11 September 2003.

Mevish Ahmed is the second of Shafilea Ahmed's sisters to have appeared in court.

Previously, Alesha Ahmed claimed she saw her parents suffocate Shafilea with a plastic bag.

The prosecution alleges Mr and Mrs Ahmed murdered their "Westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family.

Her remains were found on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria, in 2004.

The trial continues.

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Surely these parents will be put away so that they cannot harm these sisters! They must be furious that Mevish wrote these things down and gave them to her friend...I am glad that the friend came to LE with what she knew. It confirms Alesha's story completely.

It sure does. I hope this case sets a precedent in other countries that there is NO honor in honor killing.

Joanne Code says she saw teenager with bruises and a cut lip after an absence from school

Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 June 2012 12.39 EDT

A teacher has told a court she saw Shafilea Ahmed with bruises on her neck and a cut lip, which the teenager claimed were caused by beatings from her parents.

Joanne Code, who taught German to Shafilea at Great Sankey high school in Warrington, Cheshire, said the 17-year-old claimed her parents were "going to marry me off in Pakistan".

Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife, Farzana, 49, are accused of murdering their daughter at their home in Warrington in September 2003. Shafilea's badly decomposed remains were found by a flooded river in Cumbria five months later.

Code told Chester crown court Shafilea was "a very, very good student" who wanted to study law and become a barrister. Code was head of the sixth form in September 2002 as Shafilea began her A-levels. She said Shafilea was "a very quiet young lady who didn't draw attention to herself".

When Shafilea was absent from class a month into the academic year, Code spoke to Iftikhar Ahmed by telephone. She told the jury she was surprised when he said Shafilea wanted to leave college and "burn her books". "It really did not stack up at all with the student that I knew and her aspirations for what she wanted to be," she said.

Code said she spoke to Shafilea and told her to answer her questions yes or no. "I asked whether or not I needed to be worried about her welfare. She replied 'yes'."

The next day the teenager returned to school and went to see her teacher. "She had bruising to her neck and a cut on her lip," Code said. "She told me her mother and father had beaten her and that they had taken it in turns to do so while one held her down and then vice-versa."

Soon afterwards, Shafilea ran away from home and was found in a park by a friend, who took her to school. Social services arranged a meeting at which Shafilea expressed hope for a reconciliation with her parents, the court heard.

Code said she was "frightened and concerned" about what would happen to Shafilea's siblings. In a frank meeting involving her parents, Shafilea spoke "quite openly" about her lack of freedom, the court heard. Her father agreed she would be allowed more freedom and she seemed happy with it.

In February 2003, Shafilea ran away again. Code said Shafilea wanted to deal with her situation by going to the local authority and presenting herself as homeless. She drove her to organisations to find B&B accommodation. Shafilea told her: "Miss, I'm going to have an arranged marriage and I'm not coming back from Pakistan."

The Ahmeds deny murder. The trial continues.

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Shafilea’s sister was ‘fearful of her father’

5:38pm Wednesday 27th June 2012 in Bradford By Michael Black

A police officer who interviewed Bradford-born Shafilea Ahmed's sister in 2009 said she thought she was fearful of her father.

Victoria Deluce said Mevish Ahmed had a noticeable bruise on her arm but would not talk about it on tape.

But once the tapes had stopped Mevish told officers the bruise was the result of being ‘detained’ by her father Iftikhar Ahmed, aged 52, following an argument.

Miss Deluce said: “She said her father had grabbed her by the arm to prevent her from running away.

“She seemed upset and stated she didn’t want to provide the police with any information that would lead to subsequent repercussions in the family.”

Shafilea’s parents Farzana Ahmed, aged 49, and Iftikhar, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, both deny murdering their daughter. A witness statement from Barrowhall College student Sarah Bennett was also read out in Chester Crown Court today.

She said that Shafilea’s parents regularly locked her in her room without food and withdrew money from her account that she had been saving up. She said: “Shafilea was constantly changing her pin to prevent it happening but then they would take her to the bank to make her withdraw the money. One time Shafilea had dyed her hair and put on false nails but she said her mum had washed he hair and ripped her false nails off and called her a slut.”

Earlier in court Mushtaq Bagas, aged 38, denied having a sexual relationship with Shafilea in February, 2003.

He told the court he knew the teenager was having problems at home and her friend had asked him if he could help.

Mr Bagas said she stayed with him at his brother’s house in Blackburn before staying in a cheap bed and breakfast for one night but they only kissed.

The trial continues.

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These parents are damned lucky the trial isn't in the US as the jury would have already returned a guilty verdict. They make me sick!

Latest from Shafilea Ahmed trial

2:50pm Friday 6th July 2012

THE parents of Shafilea Ahmed have been hearing the final pieces of evidence against them.

Farzana and Iftikhar Ahamed, aged 52 and 49, will be giving their evidence next week at Chester Crown Court.

The prosecution is due to finish its case on Monday and on Thursday the court heard details of Farzana’s police interviews from December 2003.

In the interviews, which took place after she was arrested on a kidnapping charge, she told officers that Shafilea had lied to her friends and teachers about the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her parents.

She told officers how the stress of Shafilea’s disappearance had caused health problems and her doctor was concerned for her on a visit shortly after the 17-year-old was last seen alive.

“He was so concerned, he told me I was going to kill myself,” she said. “He thought there was something wrong between me and my husband. He never knew, I never told him it was due to my daughter.

“I’m don’t care about anyone else, I’m concerned about my daughter. It’s going to effect her life, people are going to call her all sorts of things but I don’t care about anyone else now.”

The pair deny murdering their daughter.

The trial continues.

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A GIRL who was allegedly murdered by her parents because she ‘was bringing shame’ on her family ran away from home to Blackburn before she died.

Shafilea Ahmed’s parents are on trial accused of killing their 17-year-old daughter.

The Warrington youngster’s body was found in 2004 in Cumbria.

In a trial, at Chester Crown Court, a jury heard that in 2003 she came to Blackburn to stay with a man called Mushtaq Bagas.

The 38-year-old denied having a sexual relationship with Shafilea in February, 2003.

He told the court he knew the teenager was having problems at home, and her friend had asked him if he could help.

Mr Bagas said she stayed with him at his brother’s house in Blackburn, before staying in a cheap bed and breakfast for one night, but they only kissed.

Shafilea’s parents, Farzana Ahmed, 49, and Iftikhar, 52, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, both deny murdering their daughter.

The prosecution alleges the couple killed their daughter because she was Westernised, and refused to obey them.

Andrew Edis QC said the couple believed Shafilea’s conduct was bringing shame on the family.

He said: “The defendants, having spent the best part of 12 months trying to really crush her, realised they were never going to be able to succeed and finally killed her because her conduct dishonoured the family, bringing shame on them.”

He said they embarked on a “campaign of domestic violence to force her to conform”.

He said the case had taken a long time to be brought to trial because it was not until August 2010 that a witness to the crime came forward.

The court heard that Shafilea’s parents regularly locked her in her room without food, and withdrew money from her account that she had been saving up.

Friend Sarah Bennett said: “One time Shafilea had dyed her hair and put on false nails, but she said her mum had washed her hair and ripped her false nails off and called her a slut.”

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By Nigel Bunyan
5:35PM BST 09 Jul 2012

Farzana Ahmed, 49, had claimed that nothing untoward had happened on the eveing that it is alleged she and her husband Iftikhar killed their daughter Shafilea.

But yesterday, in a moment of courtroom drama, she changed her version of events and revealed that she had witnessed her husband attacking the 17 year-old at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, told the jury Mrs Ahmed's new defence case statement contained an admission that an "incident of violence" towards Shafilea had occurred.

Her new account alleges that she came downstairs to discover her husband attacking Shafilea. Mrs Ahmed claims she tried to intervene but was "punched with a clenched fist".

She says she went upstairs with the other children because she was "scared", and when she went back downstairs 20 minutes later Shafilea and her husband were gone.

When he returned she claims she asked him where Shafilea was, and he allegedly responded: "If you care for your dear life and that of your children don't ever ask me this question again."

Mrs Ahmed claims she asked the same question of her husband "one or two days later".

She says he responded: "I have already told you once before, I don't know where she is. I have also told you not to ask me that question again."

Mrs Ahmed alleges that her husband told her that if she spoke to anyone or told anyone anything that he would "do the same to our other children and to you".

She ends the statement by saying she believed her husband had taken Shafilea "somewhere" and that "she was safe".

The prosecution claims both parents suffocated her with their bare hands after one of them stuffed a plastic bag down her throat because her westernised behaviour was bringing shame upon the family.

Afterwards Shafilea’s body was said to have been wrapped in carpet and dumped on a river bank on the edge of the Lake District.

Shafilia had resisted plans for an arranged marriage and tried to go on dates with young men. The couple had spent the previous year trying to “crush” their daughter’s will. They had finally resorted to murder when they realised they would never succeed in making her conform to their wishes.

Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, said: “They finally killed her because she had dishonoured the family and brought shame on them.

“They had despaired of her ever becoming a daughter they could ever be proud of”.

The jury at Chester Crown Court yesterday (mon) learned of the “significant development in the case” during an address by the trial judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans.

Both Farzana Ahmed and her husband, Iftikhar, have been on trial since May accused of murdering their 17-year-old daughter. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The jurors were told they would be given Mrs Ahmed's new defence case statement later today (Tues). This would provide more details of her account.

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This is HUGE!!! The mother is coming forward now. WOW!! Good for her!! I completely believe that she was also under the horrific abuse and control of her husband. It's probably a good thing she is locked up where he or his minions cannot get to her.

The mother of murdered teenager Shafilea Ahmed now claims she witnessed her husband attacking her daughter.

In what the judge has described as a "significant development in the case" Farzana Ahmed has changed her defence. Her defence statement has been read to the jury in which she describes witnessing her husband slapping Shafilea's face and "punching her two or three times to her chest area".

In her new version of what happened at the family home in Warrington in September 2003 Mrs Ahmed now claims she tried to intervene but was told by her husband, Iftikar Ahmed, to "shut up".

She says she was "extremely scared" and went upstairs with her daughter Mevish who she claims also tried to help Shafilea.

Farzana Ahmed claims when she came back downstairs her husband and Shafilea were no longer in the house and one of the cars had gone.

Her statement says when Iftikhar Ahmed returned home at 6.30 the following morning she asked where Shafilea was and was told "if you care for your dear life and that of your children don't you ever ask me that again". Their daughter Alesha has previously told the court she witnessed her parents suffocate Shafilea with a plastic bag at the family home in Warrington following years of physical abuse and arguments over her "westernised" lifestyle. Mrs Ahmed earlier made a statement saying "the events as described by Alesha Ahmed are entirely fabricated."

She on trial along with her husband at Chester Crown Court. They both deny murder.

The case has now been adjourned until Wednesday.

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Thanks for keeping us updated on this sickening case Wrap. I'm glad the mother finally seems scared enough to be telling some truth. I'm sure she was under her husband's control and abuse but FGS it's been nine years since her daughter was murdered and she never uttered a word? It took her 17 yr old to be scared and probably feeling safe in custody to tell the truth but at least SHE did. i don't know how that Mother lived w/ herself all thee years but I don't understand the culture and their ways.

So, which is true? The mother helped the father suffocate Shafilea with a plastic bag, which Alesha claims she witnessed, OR the mother witnessed the father attacking Shafilea and tried to stop him? There's a huge difference in the two accounts. Is the mother trying to shift all the blame to the father to escape punishment? Why would Alesha lie about her mother's involvement if she didn't see it?

I thought the same thing. Maybe she did help him with the body but didn't kill her? IDK but the trial resumes on Wed so we should know more.

11 July 2012 Last updated at 09:35 ET

The father of Shafilea Ahmed has told a court he was not responsible for her death.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, broke down at Chester Crown Court as he denied killing his daughter, or having anything to do with her murder.

His wife Farzana Ahmed, 49, also denies murdering the 17-year-old in 2003.

On Monday, the jury was told Mrs Ahmed had changed her account, claiming she saw her husband beat Shafilea on the night of the alleged murder.

She also claimed he had threatened to do the same to her and their other children if she ever asked him what happened to Shafilea after she disappeared from their Warrington home.

Strained voice
Asked by Tom Bayliss QC, defending, how he felt about his wife, Mr Ahmed said: "I love her to bits."

He said that had not changed, even after she changed her story.

For weeks, Iftikhar Ahmed has sat in the dock while the jury has heard the accusations against him - including by one of his own children - picked over.

Today was his chance to stand up and make his case. To say more than the two word "not guilty" plea that he offered the court at the start of the trial.

He spoke in a quiet voice. Mainly steady but at times straining with emotion - most notably when his barrister asked him about the effect on his family of his daughter Shafilea's disappearance.

"The family was devastated," he said.

Sitting 10 feet away listening is his wife of 25 years. Until this week they have spoken as one - that they both knew nothing about Shafilea's death.

This week, that ended when Farzana Ahmed changed her evidence.

Responding to a question asking whether he would ever hurt his daughter, Mr Ahmed said "no".

He was then asked if he was responsible for Shafilea's death. Again Mr Ahmed replied "no".

He then added: "We were devastated to find out that she had left home in the first place."

When he was asked how he felt when his daughter's body was found, Mr Ahmed struggled to respond, before adding in a strained voice: "We couldn't believe it when we heard."

The run-up to the trial, Mr Ahmed said, had made them "come closer" as a family.

"We have been fighting to achieve justice for our daughter Shafilea," he added.

Mr Bayliss asked Mr Ahmed if he believed he would ever know what happened to Shafilea.

Mr Ahmed responded: "We were hoping so but I don't think we ever will."

Mr Ahmed then described Shafilea to the jury, calling her "talented and athletic".

Iftikhar Ahmed said the run-up to the trial had made them "come closer" as a family
He added: "Education-wise, she was absolutely brilliant - her best subject was art, she liked making mosaics.

"She was a character in herself. Very bubbly, very talkative, everything a child should be."

Mr Ahmed told the court he "totally agreed" with his daughter's ambition to become a solicitor. (What does that mean?)

He said that it was because of her studies that he had refused to discuss a marriage proposal for Shafilea made by a "distant uncle" on behalf of his son.

He added that he did not know where the 17-year-old had got the impression she was to be "married off" from.

'It's her life'
Mr Bayliss also asked him about his opinion of Shafilea's social life and, in particular, her friendships with boys.

Mr Ahmed said if he had known about her having a friendship with a boy, "there would not be a problem".

"If we know who she is going with and then we get to know about who he is and if she likes the person, then that's fine. It's her life," he said.

When asked by Mr Bayliss how the death and accusations had affected the family and his relationship with his wife, Mr Ahmed replied: "As a couple, it's devastating, not something we expected."

Shafilea disappeared in September 2003 and her body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria the following February.

The prosecution claims she was killed by her parents because she brought shame on the family by her desire to lead a westernised lifestyle.

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Like most abuser's, he is an excellent liar. I would love to see someone do a body language analysis on him! I don't believe one word he says!

The dad of Bradford-born Shafilea Ahmed says he still loves wife Farzana 'to bits' despite her changing her statement earlier in the week.

The pair both deny the murder of Shafilea in a Court case at Chester Crown Court.

Iftikhar, aged 52, now of Liverpool Road, Warrington, entered the witness box this morning as the case enters its eighth week of evidence.

He told the jury he was 'devastated' when his daughter Shafilea disappeared in 2002 and didn't expect 'constant finger pointing'

He said: "It was constant media attention, the police and social services.

"Questions, questions, questions. We never got a rest from it on top of what we were going through.

"My wife was out of her head at the time and didn't know what to do."

He broke down in tears when Tom Bayliss asked about when Shafilea's body was found and said: "We couldn't believe what we were hearing".

"We were hoping it was not true and it had to be someone else."

The taxi driver told the court his daughter was 'very bubbly and very talkative.

He said his marriage to Farzana was 'very good' and said there has been no significant problems.

When asked how it had been facing a murder trial together, he replied 'very hard'.

"As a couple it is devastating and not something you expect "The statement she has made makes no difference whatsoever."

He said the trial has made them closer as a couple.

He added: "We have been fighting as a family to achieve justice for our daughter Shafilea.

"We want to know what happened to her and that has been the case from day one.

"I hope we will know but we may never."

Before he took to the stand, the jury were shown a video of a wedding in Pakistan with Shafilea and sister Alesha attending behind an unhappy looking bride.

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Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 July 2012 09.31 EDT

Shafilea Ahmed's father denied being a "domineering and violent man" as he was cross-examined in the witness box on Thursday during his daughter's murder trial.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a 52-year-old taxi driver from Warrington, Cheshire, was asked the question by his wife Farzana's barrister, Mukhtar Hussain QC at Chester crown court.

"That, I am not," Ahmed replied. He said "There has never been any violence."

The couple are jointly accused of murdering their 17-year-old daughter, Shafilea, at their home on 11 September, 2003. Another daughter, Alesha, gave evidence during the eight-week trial to say that she and her siblings watched as her parents pushed a plastic carrier bag into her mouth as they held her down.

The Ahmeds both deny murder. Earlier this week, Farzana Ahmed, 49, issued a new defence statement that solely implicated her husband in a single, violent act on the night of her disappearance.

Hussain asked Ahmed if he had told his wife, "if she cared for her dear life and that of her children" she would not ask him about Shafilea again. He replied: "That question was never asked, and I never said anything like that."

He said he was not accusing his wife of lying and questioned her mental health, saying she had been suffering from depression following Shafilea's disappearance. (Typical.. abusers Always question the mental health of the victim to the outside world to make themselves look like they are saints.)

Hussain said: "For the last nine years she has been singing and reading from the script that you wrote." But the lawyer added that Mr Ahmed's family had now decided "not to follow the script".

"I have never written any script," he replied. Hussain claimed he had "absolute control" over his wife until recently. "I've never had control over anybody," he responded.

On the night of 11 September, Hussain said Ahmed's wife came downstairs to witness him slapping Shafilea in the face.

"That never happened." Hussain said Shafilea was not saying anything while he was hitting her and that he was telling her: "After all we have done for you, we have done so much for you and you have started messing again."

"She was not doing anything, so why would I say that?" Ahmed replied. She "wasn't messing about, she hadn't done anything".

It was put to him that he blamed his wife for not bringing their daughter up properly, but he denied the assertion and said there was nothing wrong with her upbringing.

"I have never said she is not a good mother and I would not say that either. She has always been a good mother."

Asked: "Do you remember her pleading with you not to hit Shafilea?"

Ahmed said, firmly: "Listen, I did not hit Shafilea." He said nor did he hit his wife, causing her to stumble on the sofa. He said his wife was devastated by Shafilea's disappearance and is taking anti-depressant pills.

The court was told of an incident when Ahmed was fined £40 by magistrates for criminal damage after he damaged a taxi driver's window, which he denied. He also admitted hitting a fellow taxi driver. "It was not over nothing. He hit me first, so I hit him." In another alleged incident, he grabbed a man by his tie after he gave him £10 for a fare and he had no change. (This guy is and was a walking time bomb!)

He conceded that his wife had left him, once, and taken the children.

The prosecution claim his marriage to Farzana, his first cousin (wth?? isn't that genetically dangerous??), was arranged by a relative and that the same relative also tried to arrange a marriage for his daughter Shafilea.

During cross-examination, prosecution barrister Andrew Edis QC said to Ahmed that there was not "a snowball's chance in hell" that his daughter Shafilea – "who wanted to be a barrister in England" – would agree to a marriage with a man 10 years older than her. Ahmed replied: "There's every possibility."

He denied "play acting and lying" in his testimony. "I have always been open and honest with the police," he added. "We did not kill our daughter," he added, "and Alesha knows we haven't done that."

Asked by Edis about his daughter becoming ill in Pakistan, after an incident when she drank bleach, he was asked if his daughter was "damaged goods". Ahmed replied: "My daughter was not damaged goods. She was ill. She is my daughter, I did not kill her. I want to find out who did."

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Shafilea Ahmed’s 'violent' father concealed her death for 10 years

Testimony has revealed that murdered Pakistani girl Shafilea Ahmed’s “domineering and violent” father concealed his daughter’s death for nearly ten years. Iftikhar Ahmed allegedly wrote a script for his wife and children to follow during that time.
Thursday, July 12th 2012, 02:28 PM

Shafilea Ahmed’s “domineering and violent” father managed to conceal the truth about the teenager’s murder by forcing his family to lie for nearly 10 years, a court heard.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, allegedly “wrote a script” about her disappearance that they all stuck to until “very recently”.
But two of his surviving daughters, Alesha and Mevish had eventually given contradictory accounts, and a few days ago his wife and co-accused, Farzana, 49, had done the same.

Mrs Ahmed’s new version of events was that she last saw her daughter alive after coming downstairs on September 11, 2003.

She claims she entered the kitchen of the family's home in Warrington, Cheshire, to see her husband slapping Shafilea and shouting: “After all we have done for you, you’ve started messing again”.

Mr Ahmed told the jury at Chester Crown Court that no such conversation had taken place. He also rejected the suggestion by his wife’s barrister, Mukhtar Hussain, QC, that she had “pleaded” with him not to hit her.

Both parents deny murdering their daughter in a so-called honour killing because they thought she had brought shame on her family.

Mr Mukhtar put it to Mr Ahmed that his wife had finally spoken up after being denied bail and detained in prison for five weeks.

The time she had spent away from him had given her the chance to think for herself.

Until that time she had been “reading the script that you wrote”, said Mr Mukhtar.

“You wrote a script for her and the children and they’ve been reading that script until each of them has decided to follow it no longer.”

Mr Ahmed replied: “I’ve not written a script”.

He denied Mr Hussain’s suggestion that he was domineering and violent.

The barrister went on: “You have controlled your wife and children, and you have had absolute control until very, very recently haven't you?"

Mr Ahmed replied: "I have never had any control over anybody”.

Mr Hussain: "The control has not just simply been exercised recently, but over many years with a degree of violence from you."

Mr Ahmed: "There's never been any violence from me."
Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, alleged that Mr Ahmed had agreed to an arranged marriage between Shafilea and one of her cousins.

However, this plan had been abandoned in the weeks after the teenager swallowed bleach in a suicide attempt at her grandmother’s home in Pakistan.

The father of the proposed suitor, Abdul Razak, rang Mr Ahmed to say Shafilea was now “damaged goods” and “that any plan had reached the end of the road”.

Mr Ahmed said: “She’s not damaged goods. She’s my daughter. She was ill. She got treated”.

Mr Edis: “She’s the daughter you killed”.

Mr Ahmed: “She’s the daughter I didn’t kill”.

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By Nigel Bunyan
3:15PM BST 13 Jul 2012

In her application to Warrington Borough Council the 17-year-old said she wanted to leave home because she was being “forced” into an arranged marriage.

Shafilea, whom the prosecution alleges is the victim of a so-called honour killing, went on to claim she had been the victim of “regular incidents of violence” from the age of 15 or 16.

“One parent would hold me while the other would hit me,” she wrote.

The murder trial was told yesterday that Shafilea sought emergency accommodation just days before she was taken to Pakistan in February 2002. The teenager disappeared the following year.

Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Chester Crown Court the document showed that the teenager – who would have been 26 on Saturday – intended to leave home “for good”.

In the letter she went on: "I have been prevented from attending college and my part time job. I am scared of going back to my parents and frightened enough to flee my home.

“There has been a build up of violence toward me, and my mother told me I was about to go to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

“My mother started to pack. My parents had been into school to say I would be absent to go to Pakistan.
“My teachers have approached my parents in the past about preventing me from going into school and have threatened to get social services involved.

"I would prefer to stay in Warrington and feel that if I was given accommodation, then my parents would leave me alone because of the involvement of police and the social services."

Her father, Iftikhar Ahmed, who is accused of killing his daughter along with mother Farzana , was asked why she would have written the letter.

Mr Ahmed, 52, replied: “Because she feared she was going to get married off. It was her perception of marriage but what she wrote down is not the truth.

"It was her perception and had she mentioned it we would have assured her there was no such thing.”
Mr Ahmed acknowledged that he had bought Shafilea a one-way ticket to Pakistan, while the rest of the family were given return tickets a week later.

His eldest daughter had been keen to go on “the family holiday”, and once there decided to stay for a few months because she liked it so much.

He denied that tablets he had been prescribed for dizziness the day before the flight were used to drug her to make sure she went on the trip.

Mr Ahmed said:" My daughter was not forced to go to Pakistan. She was not drugged - nobody drugged her."

Her younger sister Alesha claims the parents pushed Shafilea on to the settee in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

Mrs Ahmed recently changed her statement to blame her husband for the killing claiming she was too afraid to speak out earlier.

The couple, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, allegedly murdered their "Westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family.

Earlier, the court was told that a listening device placed inside the Ahmeds’ home had recorded Farzana Ahmed, 49, screaming at her husband: “You are a pimp, you are shameless. I swear to Allah everything has happened because of you”.

The Ahmeds, of Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire, both deny murder. Their trial continues.

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Latest from Shafilea Ahmed trial in Chester Crown Court

2:59pm Tuesday 17th July 2012

The youngest sister of Shafilea Ahmed was warned in a blazing row with her parents that she had brought shame on her family for getting a ear piercing.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was asked about the argument that took place in front of witnesses at Chester Crown Court today.

Anthony Edis QC, prosecuting, asked how Iftihkar Ahmed and Farzana Ahmed reacted when they saw the piercing.

The girl said: "Like anybody else would - with shock."

"The reason I'm asking about it isn't just because they didn't approve but how did they behave?"


The witness said she could not remember but Mr Edis described a fierce confrontation in October 2011 during which Iftikhar repeatedly said she was bringing shame on the family.

After she asked why the 52-year-old replied: "I will not have shame brought on this family."

After being challenged again Iftikhar continued 'we are your parents. We will tell you what you can and can't do. You will obey. You will not bring shame on this family."

Farzana also accused her youngest daughter of bringing shame and that she did not respect her parents or culture.

The girl said that her 49-year-old mum 'wore the pants' in the Ahmed household, meaning that she was in charge.

She also said that her parents had not been violent towards her but denied being able to remember what happen the night Shafilea disappeared.

The court heard that the girl was only called as a witness at the last minute after Farzana changed her defence statement last week.

She wanted to 'stay out of it' before her mum alleged that Iftikhar had brutally beaten Shafilea the night she was allegedly killed.

Both parents deny murder.

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18 July 2012 Last updated at 15:41 ET

Shafilea Ahmed's brother has accused his mother and sister of lying about the events leading up to her death.

Junyad Ahmed, 22, was giving evidence at Chester Crown Court at the trial of his father Iftikhar, 52, and mother Farzana, 49.

They deny murdering Shafilea at their Warrington home in September 2003.

Mrs Ahmed has claimed she saw Mr Ahmed attack Shafilea while their daughter Alesha has claimed she saw her parents kill the 17-year-old.

Shafilea's body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004.

Alesha Ahmed had previously told the court her parents put a plastic bag in Shafilea's mouth and held their hands over her face.

'Pack of lies'
She claimed her brother Junyad, who was 13 at the time of the alleged killing, had said afterwards that Shafilea had "deserved it".

Junyad Ahmed said his sister's account was "a pack of lies" and denied saying "anything of the sort".

He told the court he had not played any part in his sister's death or been involved in a cover up and rejected the prosecution's allegation that he was taking his father's side and sticking to the "family lie".

Earlier in the trial, the jury was told Farzana Ahmed had changed her account, claiming she saw her husband beat Shafilea on the night of the alleged murder.

She also claimed he had threatened to do the same to her and their other children if she ever asked him what happened to Shafilea.

When asked by the prosecution about his mother's claims, he said: "Well obviously, I think it's a lie what she is saying, but that's her personal account to give."

The prosecution claims Shafilea was killed by her parents because they thought she had brought shame on the family through her desire to lead a Westernised lifestyle.

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19 July 2012 Last updated at 16:47 ET
Shafilea Ahmed: Mother says father was last to see her

Shafilea Ahmed's mother has told a court her husband was the last person to see their daughter alive.

Farzana Ahmed, 49, and her husband Iftikhar, 52, both deny murdering the 17-year-old at their Warrington home in 2003.

Speaking through a translator, Mrs Ahmed told the jury at Chester Crown Court that she had played no part in Shafilea's death.

She also said she had not seen Shafilea being killed.

Mrs Ahmed added the last time she had seen her daughter was on 11 September 2003.

Asked by Mukhtar Hussain QC, defending Mrs Ahmed, who the last person was to see her daughter alive, she replied, "My husband".

'Slapped her'
In response to a question about Shafilea's friends and relationships outside of her family, Mrs Ahmed told the court she did not know of her daughter's contact with boys until 2002 when her phone rang.

The court heard she was told to answer the phone, with a male voice audible on the other end of the line asking if she was ok.

Mrs Ahmed said they asked her daughter who it was, but she would not answer them.

Asked by Mr Hussain how Mr Ahmed reacted to this, Mrs Ahmed said: "He slapped her twice".

Mr Hussain then asked Mrs Ahmed how she responded, to which she replied: "What else could I have done, I said to Shafilea, tell your father the truth".

'No drugged drink'
Mrs Ahmed she had been "very upset" when Shafilea ran away from home to Blackburn in early 2003.

The jury heard the family flew to Pakistan the day after Shafilea was brought home by her father.

Mrs Ahmed denied there was a "plan" to get her married off when in Pakistan, and denied Shafilea was given a drugged drink to get her on the plane.

She said: "There was no drink, I don't know anything about it."

Shafilea's body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004.

Earlier in the trial, the jury was told Mrs Ahmed had changed her account, claiming she saw her husband beat Shafilea on the night of the alleged murder.

She also claimed he had threatened to do the same to her and their other children if she ever asked him what happened to Shafilea.

The prosecution claims Shafilea was killed by her parents because they thought she had brought shame on the family through her desire to lead a westernised lifestyle.

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The mother of alleged honour killing victim Shafilea Ahmed told how her husband had "slapped and punched " the teenager on the night of her disappearance after becoming angrier than she had ever seen him.


By Victoria Ward2:09PM BST 20 Jul 2012
The mother of alleged honour killing victim Shafilea Ahmed told how her husband had " slapped and punched " the teenager on the night of her disappearance.

Farzana Ahmed,49, gave the murder trial her version of what happened in the family home on the night that Shafilea,17, went missing in September 2003.

The mother of five said that she had gone upstairs after giving Shafilea her evening meal to find her husband Iftikhar,52, attacking the student.

"I came downstairs and he was hitting her. He slapped her twice and he punched her twice. She was still sat on the stool. She was not screaming but she was crying. "He said to her ' we have done so much for you and your are still messing about.' I asked him what Shafilea had done.He said to me ' if you had been educated, you would have known what she is doing.' (What a complete ass!!)

"I tried to stop him but he pushed me away. I said to him ' sit down and talk to her - what is the point of hitting her ?'

"He was very angry.I have never seen him so angry.I have seen him angry before but not like this."

Mr and Mrs Ahmed both deny murder

She was asked by her barrister Mr Mukhtar Hussain QC: " Did you try to stop him?"

She replied:" Yes. I moved forward but he pushed me away and he also punched me. There is a settee not far from there and I stumbled onto it.

"When I got up I saw Mevish walk in. She also stepped forward and tried to stop her father. I pushed her away to get her out of the road. It was for her own safety. I was scared and I thought perhaps my husband would also hit her."

Mrs Ahmed, who gave evidence through a Punjabi interpreter , said she then took Mevish upstairs to the bedroom that the four sisters shared.

"I lay down on the bed with Mevish and about 20 to 25 minutes later I heard an engine starting.I did not bother to look out because we live on a main road and it could have been a neighbour's car.

"I went downstairs about half an hour later and my husband and Shafilea were not there. I noticed that my car which had been on the drive , was not there.

"My husband came back about 6 to 6.30 a.m. He came upstairs and I went into our bedroom and said ' where have you been and where is Shafilea?'

"He said ' If you care for your life and your children's life , do not ask me that question ever again.' I was crying, I was in shock, I was upset."

Mr Hussain asked her:" What did you think had happened to Shafilea ?"

She replied:" I could not think. I thought wherever my daughter was, she was safe. I am a mother and it was my maternal instinct. I could not think she was probably dead."

Mrs Ahmed said that later that day he told her and the children that if anyone asked about Shafilea, they were to say that she had left the house by herself.

"I asked him again where Shafilea was and he repeated the same thing. If I cared for myself or the children's lives, I would not ask that question again. He said it angrily. He was very angry - his eyes were red."

Mrs Ahmed claimed that her husband beat her up regularly and had done so since they were married in 1986. She had left home once with the children and sought refuge from the local council but had returned home because the children were hungry.

She told the jury that she had supported her husband's story that Shafilea had run away from home for the last nine years because she was frightened of him.

She also said that if they divocred , her sister , who was married to his brother , would have to divorce and joint family land in Pakistan would have to be divided up.

Mrs Ahmed said she had decided to tell the truth after being remanded in custody two weeks ago and had been separated from her husband for the first time.

"I was in prison and so was my husband. I felt safe. I decided to tell the truth, " she said.

Cross examined by Tom Bayliss QC for Iftikhar Ahmed, she denied that she had changed her story to fit in with an account given by her daughter Mevish to her friend Shahin Munir.

She said:" I have lied because I have been told to by my husband.I was scared. I was telling what my husband told me to say.I admit I have lied but it is because my husband told me to. I was scared for my other children."

Farzana and Iftikhar Ahmed both deny murder. The trial at Chester Crown Court continues.

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5:13PM BST 23 Jul 2012

Farzana Ahmed is accused of joining forces with her husband Iftikhar to kill their daughter Shafilea because she was becoming too Westernized.

Mrs Ahmed had since changed her evidence to suggest she had seen her husband beating the teenager before she vanished in 2003 claiming she was too scared to come forward until now.

However it emerged today that Mrs Ahmed was heard 'telling off' her husband in secret recordings made by police when the bugged the family home.

In another extract, Mrs Ahmed was heard shouting at her daughters calling them "daughters of pigs " and threatening to hit them.
She said:"I was just trying to scare them. I did not mean to do what I said."

Mrs Ahmed insisted at the murder trial that she had gone along with her husband's story that Shafilea had run away because she was " scared " of him.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC challenged her claim that she had dramatically changed her defence to blame her husband because she had been remanded in custody and was free of his influence.

He said she had been separated from him before after they were first arrested and remanded in separate prisons.

He said:" The truth is that if you had not been involved in the murder yourself, you would surely have told the police your side of it."

She replied:" I am not involved in this.The reason I did not speak out was because I was scared of my husband for the sake of my children and for my family."

"He sat the children down on the evening after she went missing and told them to say that , if anyone asked, Shafilea had gone missing. We were just telling the authorities what he told us to say."

The jury was played six extracts from secret police recordings at the family house in Warrington, Cheshire made after Shafilea went missing in September 2003.

Mrs Ahmed was heard shouting at her husband in discussions about the police investigation.

Mr Edis said:"You don't sound terrified of him. You are telling him off."

She said:"Perhaps I was angry.I was suffering from depression and I was not thinking very clearly."

One extract was of the couple discussing the possibility of their house being bugged by police and Mr Edis said:" You were worried because there was a secret to be kept. You were working together as a team to make sure the cover up was effective."

Mother of five Mrs Ahmed replied:"I had not done anything. I was frightened."

Mr Edis said:"You have stayed with a murderer for nine years. You have operated as a team."

She replied:"I am telling the truth. I have never been part of a team.I have not taken part in anything."

She admitted that the " hundreds of hours " of recordings did not show any signs of violence toward her or any examples of her asking her husband what had become of Shafilea.

She said:"Obviously he did not threaten me 24 hours a day but there were several occasions."

Mr Edis said the taped conversations showed that " you were planning a defence strategy with him because you had done the murder with him."

She replied:"No."

Mr Edis said in a third conversation played to the jury about a trip to Pakistan she was "telling him off."

She said: "That is my normal voice.I was not shouting at my husband.My husband will not allow me to shout at him. In our culture women do not shout at their husbands. It is my normal voice. It is how I speak."

Mr Edis said the extracts showed her speaking " very angrily and very aggressively " to her husband.

He said:"You were in control in the house.You were not just a domestic servant. You could stick up for yourself."

Mrs Ahmed replied:"It is different in your culture. In our culture, it is not acceptable for a woman to go against her husband's wishes."

Mr Edis said to her:" Shafilea had brought shame on your family and if there is one thing you cannot stand, it is shame. It is more important than happiness and even more important than life. That is why you killed her."

Mr Ahmed replied:"No. As I have said before, I did not kill our daughter."

Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed ,49,both deny murder.The trial at Chester Crown court continues.

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I believe the daughter's story about the mother participating in the murder along with the father. The mother is now trying to save her own skin. I don't know why the daughter would lie about her mother's involvement if she had not actually witnessed it.

2:40pm Friday 27th July 2012 in News

THE jury in the Shafilea Ahmed trial has been hearing why they should not convict her parents of her murder this morning.

Tom Bayliss QC told the court that despite the intense media interest in the case jurors had to put aside any prejudices or conceptions they had when decided the verdicts for Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, aged 52 and 49.

He said: "It is a case that has gripped the media. I doubt anyone in this country doesn't know about this case. It appeals to all our prejudices. A young woman trying to live the life she wanted "It is easy to portray [her parents] as backward thinking figures. Their culture is still right in Pakistan and they find it difficult to accept [western life]."

He added that they should ignore the prosecution's assertions that the 17-year-old, who is alleged to have died on September 11 2003 in the family home on Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, could only submit, escape or die.

He added: "The fact Shafilea was rebelling against her parents doesn't mean they would kill her."

The court is expected to hear the final case from Farzana's barrister on Monday.

The pair deny murder.

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Strange wording IMHO. HOW much longer does this trial need to continue? Really, the writing is on the wall!

Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 August 2012 06.22 EDT

Shafilea Ahmed disappeared on 11 September 2003 and her remains were found on a riverbank in Cumbria five months later.

A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the murder trial of Shafilea Ahmed, the 17-year-old who was allegedly killed by her parents in an "honour killing" after she resisted their calls for an arranged marriage.

The judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans, warned the jury at Chester crown court on Tuesday to put aside any feelings of sympathy and revulsion when considering their verdicts, following a three-month trial. Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, are jointly accused of murdering their daughter at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire in September 2003.

The judge told the jury: "Discuss the evidence coolly and calmly." He told them there was no special way or secret formula to reaching a verdict and he urged them to rely on their common sense. "You have come here from different backgrounds, brought at random, and you all have common sense," he added. "The way to decide is ordinary, everyday common sense and if you do then I have every confidence." (Sure wish the Anthony jury had been told this!)

Shafilea disappeared on 11 September 2003, and her badly decomposed remains were found on a flooded bank by the river Kent in Sedgwick, Cumbria, five months later in February 2004.

The prosecution case is that Shafilea was thought to have brought shame on the family as a result of her desire to lead a "westernised" lifestyle. In the six months before her death, she drank bleach during a family trip to Pakistan, the court has been told.

Taxi driver Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, denies murder, and says his daughter ran away from home in the middle of the night and he never saw her again. His 49-year-old wife Farzana also denies murder, but claims she saw her husband slap and punch Shafilea on the night of her disappearance. She claims he told her never to ask about it if she cared for her dear life and those of her children. Farzana Ahmed claims she lied to police because she was frightened of her husband. Iftikhar Ahmed said his wife's version of events was not the truth but despite her account, he still "loves her to bits". In evidence, he said he had not harmed his daughter and that he was not a violent man.

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Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 August 2012 09.47 EDT

Iftikhar and Faranza Ahmed had vehemently denied any involvement in their daughter’s death.

The parents of Shafilea Ahmed have both been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years after being found guilty of murdering their 17-year-old daughter.

The jury delivered its verdict at Chester crown court after a three-month trial and almost nine years after Shafilea was killed for defying her parents' wishes for an arranged marriage in Pakistan to a much older man.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a 52-year-old taxi driver, and his wife, Farzana, 49, from Warrington, Cheshire, had vehemently denied any involvement in their daughter's death at the family home on 11 September 2003, but the jury disagreed with their account of events.

As the verdicts were delivered after two days of deliberations, Shafilea's brother Junyad and sister Mevish cried in court, as did a younger sibling who cannot be identified for legal reasons. Initially the Ahmed parents remained impassive in the dock, but Farzana Ahmed began crying as she was led out of court, and her husband turned and swore at police officers sitting nearby.

The prosecution's barrister, Henry Riding, said that the two parents acting together had killed their child. "They were her parents and responsible for her care and wellbeing," he said. "In September 2003, she was in a weakened state [after drinking bleach]."

Shafilea's best friend, Melissa Powner, said: "We have waited for this day for many years. We have watched as her killers roamed free. Yet today we heard those important words – words that have finally brought our friend the justice she deserves.

"Shafilea was a caring, high spirited and brave young lady who even in her toughest times always strived to remain positive and hopeful that one day she too would be able to live the peaceful and happy life that she deserved."

The judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans, had earlier urged the jury to put aside feelings of sympathy and revulsion when considering the case and to discuss the evidence coolly and calmly.

Shafilea's badly decomposed remains were found on a flooded bank of the river Kent in Sedgwick, Cumbria, five months after her disappearance, in February 2004. The jury agreed with the prosecution's assertion that she had been killed by her parents because they believed she had brought shame on the family as the result of her desire to lead a "westernised" lifestyle. In the six months before her death, Shafilea drank bleach during a family trip to Pakistan in an apparent cry for help.

The prosecution's key witness was Shafilea's 24-year-old sister, Alesha, who said she and her siblings had witnessed the murder at the family home. She said Farzana issued the command in Urdu: "Just finish it here," as her parents forced a plastic carrier bag into Shafilea's mouth and placed their hands over her it, blocking her airways as her father held her down. Alesha said Shafilea's eyes were wide open in horror and she was kicking her legs in protest. She realised her sister was dead when her legs stopped kicking. "That was it, she was gone," she told the court. She recalled seeing her father punching her sister's lifeless body in the chest after the killing. Later, she watched her mother prepare sheets, binbags and rolls of tape in the kitchen. She looked out of a window and saw her father carrying a heavy package, which she assumed was Shafilea's body.

Iftikhar Ahmed denied any involvement in Shafilea's death, maintaining she ran away from home in the middle of the night and he never saw her again. But midway through the trial, his wife changed her account of events and said her husband was responsible for a single, violent attack on Shafilea on the night of her disappearance. Her husband, she claimed, told her to never ask him about Shafilea again "if she cared for her dear life" and those of her children. However, the jury failed to be convinced by the couple's version of events and found them both guilty of murder.

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A British court found a Pakistani-born couple guilty on Friday of murdering their "westernised" teenage daughter in an apparent honour killing.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, were both found guilty of murder at Chester Crown Court in Cheshire, north-west England, after suffocating their 17-year-old daughter Shafilea in 2003.

In a high-profile case, Shafilea's sister Alesha had told the jury her mother had said: "Just finish it here," as they forced a plastic bag into Shafilea's mouth in front of their other children.

Iftikhar Ahmed stood impassively as the verdicts were given, while his wife wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue. They were due to be sentenced later on Friday.

Three of their children also broke down in tears as they watched from the courtroom.

Shafilea had disappeared from the family home in the town of Warrington, near Chester, in September 2003, and her body was found five months later on a riverbank in Cumbria, north-west England.

Prosecutors said the couple murdered her because they felt her "western" habits, such as wearing make-up and talking to boys, had brought shame on the family.

The court heard that Shafilea had run away from home and asked the local authority to provide her with emergency accommodation, just before she was drugged and taken to Pakistan in February 2003 to be forced into a marriage.

In a letter to social services, she said she had suffered from regular domestic violence since she was 15.

"One parent would hold me whilst the other hit me," she wrote. "I was prevented from attending college and my part-time job."

Her main reason for running away was that her parents "were going to send me to Pakistan and get me married to someone," she added.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a taxi driver, denied the murder and said Shafilea ran away from home. His wife also denied the killing, but told the jury she saw her husband beating Shafilea and believed that he killed her.

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Very interesting articles w/pics. This does not shock me one iota.

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