Shafilea Ahmed Trial: Accused mother changes account of the killing in ‘significant development in the case’

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Shafilea Ahmed Trial: Accused mother changes account of the killing in ‘significant development in the case’

July 10th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
James Tozer

PUBLISHED:

12:06 EST, 9 July 2012

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UPDATED:

05:48 EST, 10 July 2012

A mother accused of murdering her westernised daughter yesterday dramatically changed her story to accuse her husband of attacking the teenager.

Farzana Ahmed had denied claims that she and husband Iftikhar suffocated Shafilea in a row over what she was wearing.

But on the last day of the prosecution case against them, the jury was told she had altered her account of what happened on the day the 17-year-old was last seen alive.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed both deny murder. Their daughter Shafilea disappeared in September 2003 and her body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria the following February

Mrs Ahmed, 49, now claims she came into the kitchen to find her husband, 52, hitting their eldest daughter.

When she tried to intervene, she alleges he attacked her too. She hid upstairs with her other children and later heard a car drive away from the house.

The next morning, when she asked where Shafilea was, she claimed her husband told her: ‘If you care for your dear life and that of your children, don’t ever ask me this question again.’

When she questioned him a day or so later, he told her that if she ever spoke to anyone else about what had happened he would do the same to her and their other children, Mrs Ahmed claims.

However she insists that she believed her husband had taken Shafilea somewhere safe.

The couple failed to report their daughter missing after she vanished in September 2003, later telling police she had run away from the family home in Warrington, Cheshire.

Shafilea’s decomposing body was found five months later beside a river in Cumbria.

But her parents were only charged with her murder after Shafilea’s younger sister Alesha told police in 2010 that she had seen them suffocating her.

Shafilea Ahmed's mother, who is accused of her murder, has changed her defence case in which the judge describes as a 'significant development'

Shafilea Ahmed’s mother, who is accused of her murder, has changed her defence case in which the judge describes as a ‘significant development’

The prosecution claims that Shafilea’s desire to live a westernised lifestyle and have boyfriends brought her into conflict with her parents’ traditional Pakistani culture and their ‘concept of shame and honour’.

Now 23, Alesha – who came forward after admitting masterminding a robbery at the family home – claimed both her parents took part in the attack in front of her other siblings.

She told the court that after a row over Shafilea’s outfit, her mother said in Urdu, ‘Just finish it here’ before picking up a plastic bag which her husband stuffed into the teen’s mouth.

He then held it in place as Shafilea kicked out wildly.

Alesha claims that when her sister had finally stopped struggling, her body was placed in bin bags and taken out to the car.

Both Mr and Mrs Ahmed gave statements insisting they had no involvement in their daughter’s disappearance and denied claims that they used to beat her.

Yesterday, however, eight weeks into their trial at Chester Crown Court, the jury was told Mrs Ahmed had changed her defence in what the judge described as a ‘significant’ development. Henry Riding, prosecuting, read out a statement which she had signed earlier in the day.

He said Mrs Ahmed, referred to as ‘the accused’, accepted that ‘an incident of violence’ did take place towards Shafilea on September 11, 2003, after she picked her daughter up from work.

‘As was routine, the deceased (Shafilea) went upstairs and the accused went straight into the kitchen,’ he added.

‘Her husband was there, and the accused commenced preparing the tuna pasta dish for the deceased and called for her to come downstairs.’

After Shafilea reappeared, Mrs Ahmed went up to use the bathroom, her statement continued.

When she came back downstairs, her husband was ‘very angry… hitting the deceased, slapping her with his hands towards the facial area and punching her two to three times to the upper part of her body.

‘The accused tried to intervene but she was told to go away.’

When Mrs Ahmed tried again she was ‘pushed away by both hands and also punched with a clenched fist’.

Contrary to Alesha’s account, Mrs Ahmed claims in her statement that only her third eldest daughter, Mevish, then 12, was present.

Fearing for Mevish’s safety and ‘extremely scared’, she took her upstairs to the girls’ bedroom, the statement adds.

Some 20 minutes later, she heard a car leaving, and came down to find Shafilea and her husband gone along with her car.

At 6.30am the next day Mr Ahmed returned without Shafilea, claims the statement.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard what the prosecution says was an account of Shafilea’s murder given by Mevish to a friend. However Mevish, now 21, told the court her description of her father hitting Shafilea had been ‘fiction’.

She also dismissed notes in which she apparently described her guilt over the abuse allegedly suffered by Shafilea as ‘free writing’ and made up.

The couple also have a son Junyade, who was 13 when Shafilea vanished, and a fourth daughter, then seven, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Mrs Ahmed continues to deny Shafilea’s murder, as does her husband, who is due to give evidence in his defence tomorrow.