News / World
Father Found Guilty of Daughter’s Death in “Honor Killing”
A London court found the father of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod guilty of orchestrating what was described as an “honor killing” due to her adoption of Westernized ways and falling in love with the wrong man.
Prosecutors claimed that Mahmod Mahmod, along with his brother Ari Mahmod, devised a plan to have the woman killed for shaming the family.
Arriving in Britain in 1998, the Mahmod family left behind their Kurdish village in Iraq but carried with them the same set of cultural values of their former home. When Banaz Mahmod split from an arranged marriage the act outraged her father. He became further incensed by her adoption of Western practices. By the time she chose to fall in love with an unapproved man her father had had enough.
According to prosecutors Mahmod arranged for his daughter to be strangled and then stuffed into a suitcase and buried in the family’s backyard.
The young woman had reached out to police for help in previous incidents but her pleas often fell on deaf ears. A one point Banaz had recorded a videotaped message outlining her fear that she would soon be attacked by her family. Shortly after that tape was made she disappeared.
Police found her body some three-months later.
Banaz’s older sister, Bekhal, testified during the three-month trial that her father had beaten Banaz for various offenses against fundamentalist Islamic laws. Bekhal had described an incident when her own brother was paid by her father to beat Banaz. Throughout the trial Bekhal appeared in a full burqa, saying she feared for her own life now that she has testified.
The court found Mahmod Mahmod, and Ari Mahmod, 51 guilty of orchestrating the murder while their associate Mohamad Hama was found guilty of the actual murder. There are still two other suspects who are at large and believed to have fled the country.
The three men will be sentenced at a later date.
