London Honour Killing

A young woman was murdered by her family and buried inside a suitcase in an 'honour killing' for falling in love with the wrong man, a court heard today.

Pretty Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace in a murder planned by her father and uncle because she had bought shame on the family, it was claimed.

Banaz was forced into an arranged marriage when she was just 17 but after three years she returned to the family home and afterwards began secretly to see new lover Rahmat Suleimani, who was 10 years her senior.

But her family were incensed that he was not from their part of the Kurdish community and feared she would shame them as they felt her older sister had done when she left home, it was claimed.

Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and her uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, set in motion a scheme which would see Banaz pay the ultimate price - her brutal death, the Old Bailey was told.

[...]

Mr Temple told the court that although Banaz and Rahmat Suleimani met in secret, her father soon found out and he was "wilfully blind to the fact that they were obviously in love".

He was "indifferent to his daughter's fate" and the killing was "cold blooded and callous," the court heard.

His father met Mr Suleimani in October 2005 and warned him he would never be allowed to marry his daughter.

Then on New Years Eve Banaz's father persuaded her to go to her grandmother's house where, after being told to bring in a suitcase, she was plied with brandy.

But sensing danger she fled through the back garden, smashed her way into a house before leaving and running to a cafe where she told stunned diners "they was trying to kill her".

When she was taken to hospital, she was too frightened to get out of the ambulance, and when her lover turned up, he filmed her on his mobile lying on a trolley recounting what had happened to her. This footage was played to the jury.

But her family managed to persuade her to return home, saying she would not be hurt.

However on the day she disappeared on January 22 last year, Mr Suleimani was approached by Mohamad Hama and three other men in his Ford Focus car and told to get in.

He refused and the four left after warning him they were going to kill him because they were Muslim and Kurdish, and unlike the English, would not allow him and Banaz to be boyfriend and girlfriend, it was alleged.

Once again, we see how Muslim men regard women as being no more than items of property.

Update: Although the body was buried in Birmingham, it seems that Miss Mahmod actually lived in Mitcham, South London. So I have amended the title of this post from "Birmingham Honour Killing" to "London Honour Killing".