YahooA landmark verdict finds nine people guilty for conspiring to kill a young Pakistani woman and her husband in the largest honour killing case ever tried in Europe
The High Court of Eastern Denmark delivered a 'guilty' verdict on Tuesday to all nine defendants in the most far-reaching honour killing ever tried in Europe.
The verdict is considered a landmark finding, since not only the brother who fired the gun that killed Ghazala Khan was found guilty.
The court also found Ghazala's father and seven others guilty of conspiring to murder the young Pakistani woman and her husband for disobeying orders not to marry last September. Jurors determined that a group of uncles, aunts and acquaintances apparently plotted to lure the couple to the train station of Slagelse in western Zealand, where the brother waited with a loaded gun.
Ghazala suffered fatal wounds while her newly wed husband narrowly escaped death.
Although lawyers of seven of the defendants sought a reduced sentence for their clients, jurors rejected their plea that mitigating circumstances should release a milder sentence.
The verdict came as no surprise to Vagn Greve, a law professor at Copenhagen University. Jurors merely made use of Danish law's broad guidelines in defining who acts as an accomplice in a crime, he said.
'From what I have heard and read, I cannot see that we have done anything new. The jurors found that existing rules should be put to use.'
Legal experts in Germany, Sweden and other countries have followed the case closely, since it marks the first time accomplices have been found guilty in an honour killing.
Yes, when that unarmed man kicked me in the shin and ran for his life, well I knew I had to shot him twice and murder my little sister or I would never be safe again...COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Nine people were convicted Tuesday of murder or being an accessory to murder in the killing of a 19-year-old woman gunned down by her older brother two days after her wedding because her Pakistani family disapproved of her husband.
The 12-member jury returned guilty verdicts against the nine, all family members and friends, in the slaying of Ghazala Khan. Sentencing was expected later this week.
Khan was shot and killed Sept. 23 in Slagelse, 100 kilometres west of Copenhagen. Her husband was shot twice in the stomach but survived.
In testimony during the trial, Khan's older brother, Akthar Abbas, admitted to shooting the couple as they tried to flee to a train station, but he claimed he acted in self-defence because his brother-in-law, Emal Khan, had allegedly kicked him.
Akthar Abbas was found guilty of murder. His father, Ghulum Abbas, was found guilty of incitement to murder and masterminding the killing. Both face the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, automatically commuted to 16 years under Danish law.
Seven other people, including three of Khan's uncles, an aunt and a family friend, were found guilty of being accessories to murder.
Prosecutors alleged Ghulum Abbas had his son and other family members track down the daughter and her new husband and kill them. Ghulum Abbas pleaded not guilty.
The trial, which began in May, has highlighted disparate views on marriage between some immigrants and Danes in this country of 5.4 million. An estimated 200,000 Muslims live in Denmark.
"In some parts of the immigrant community, there are still some differences in understanding love marriages and cultural backgrounds and traditions," said Torben Ruberg Rasmussen, a professor with the University of Southern Denmark's Centre for Middle East Studies.
Abdul Wahid Petersen, a leading imam in Denmark, said Danish Muslims did not regard the honour killing as "their case."
"To us, it is not a religious case, it is a criminal case," Petersen told The Associated Press before the verdict was delivered. "But it is obvious that in many people's minds, it will be connected to Islam."
Manu Sareen, a counsellor for young people facing arranged marriages in Denmark, believes the outcome would send a "strong signal" and show that Danish authorities takes honour killings seriously.
"It will have a preventive effect," Sareen said. "Some families may abandon similar plans because of today's ruling."
Does he not listen to myself talk you think? Perhaps Tribalism (look I'm not a friend of Islam, we all know that but honor killings predate it) installs a special filter in the brain...