Sister of 'honour' killing victim won't forgive

1:03am Tuesday 12th June 2007

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The older sister of "honour killing" victim Banaz Mahmod says she can never forgive her father and her uncle for what they did.

Bekhal Mahmod fled the family home in 2002 after being beaten and threatened by her father, who claimed she had brought shame on his name by adopting Western ways.

Even today she continues to fear for her life, and never goes out without wearing a long black veil that covers her entire body and face, apart from her eyes.

Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle, Ari Mahmod, 50, both of Mitcham, were convicted of 20-year-old Banaz's murder at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Asked how she feels about what they did, she said: "Forgive isn't even a question. They don't deserve to be on this earth.

"There are a lot of evil people out there. They might be your own blood, they might be a stranger to you, but they are evil."

Bekhal, 22, who cannot reveal where she lives now because of the risk of reprisals, strongly rejected the suggestion that Banaz had brought "shame" on her Kurdish family by falling in love with a man they did not approve of.

Bekhal left home a year after Banaz was paired off in an unhappy arranged marriage at the age of 17, and last saw her in 2005.

Banaz only remained in her marriage because of her father, but she was "very happy" after she began a relationship with Rahmat Sulemani in June 2005.

She disappeared in January last year. Her badly-decomposed body was found three months later in a suitcase buried in a back garden in Birmingham.

"She just wanted to get out of it, be a free person, be allowed to get out of the house when she wanted to, not be locked up and be told not to do things," said Bekhal.

Bekhal was a key prosecution witness at the trial, telling the court her father had threatened to kill her sisters, her mother and himself unless she returned home.

Her uncle Ari also told her she deserved to be "turned to ashes" for bringing shame on the family, the court heard.

Asked what was in her father's mind on the day that Banaz died, Bekhal replied: "All I can say is devilishness.

"How can somebody think that kind of thing and actually do it to your own flesh and blood? It's disgusting."

Bekhal says even now she gets scared whenever she sees somebody from the same background as her.

"I watch my back 24/7, at certain times of the night I will not be out past certain times, and I don't go to certain places, see certain friends of mine because of what's happened, because they're close to whoever.

"I've had to take a lot of extreme measures to keep myself safe."