Sister ‘saw parents kill teenager Shafilea Ahmed for bringing dishonour on family’

Iftikhar and Farzana murdered their 17-year-old daughter because they believed she was bringing shame on the family by having regular contact with westernised boys against their wishes, the court heard.

The decomposed remains of Shafilea Ahmed were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004.

Today, as her parents Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed went on trial for murder, prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told Chester Crown Court they had killed her because she refused to obey them.

Opening the case against the Ahmeds, Mr Edis told the jury of seven men and five women: “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.”

The court heard that before her death, Shafilea was taken to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. While there she drank bleach in “act of desparation”.

Ahmed, 52, and his 49-year-old wife, deny murdering Shafilea at their home in Warrington in September 2003.

Mr Edis said: “The prosecution alleges that she (Shafilea) was murdered by the two defendants, her parents, at the family home on the night of September 11/12, September 2003. She was 17 years old.”

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

“This witness is Alesha Ahmed, Shafilea’s younger sister.”

The court heard that Alesha kept silent for seven years and only told police after she was arrested for taking part in a robbery at her parents’ home in Liverpool Road, Warrington.

Mr Edis said Alesha witnessed the killing of her sister by their parents “acting together”.

“This evidence was the final piece of the puzzle which the police had been trying to solve for many years.”

“Until that moment they had no direct evidence of murder,” he added.

Mr Edis said that, after witnessing the murder, Alesha lived in a family “under great strain” and that as she grew up she suffered from “divided loyalties”.

The court heard that Shafilea had suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her parents in the 12 months leading up to her disappearance in 2003.

Mr Edis said: “The prosecution say during that year 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 that was expected of her.

“She was a thoroughly Westernised young British girl of Pakistani origin. Her parents had standards which she was reluctant to follow.”

The court heard that the defendants put their daughter under “intense pressure” and were seeking to control her.

“She was unwilling to do this and she resisted,” Mr Edis said.

The court heard that police placed a covert listening device in the home of the Ahmeds in November 2003 when Shafilea was still believed to be missing.

Mr Edis said the conversations which were recorded were “surprising” as they were discussing whether the police would have them under surveillance.

He said: “They are discussing what sort of surveillance tactics the police could be using in order to investigate them and they are talking in very cautious terms.”

Mr Edis said they were “rather odd conversations” for people to be having if they are completely innocent.

In conversations with her other children, Mrs Ahmed can be heard warning them not to say anything at school.

The defendants refer to one of their children as a “good boy” but then say if he talked he could “have us put inside”.

Mrs Ahmed was also recorded saying to her son Junyade: “If the slightest thing comes out of your mouth, we will be stuck in real trouble. Remember that.”

The trial continues.