UK jails 3 for 'honour killing'
2005-12-12 17:53
London - An English court sentenced a Bangladeshi-born man and his two teenage sons on Monday to minimum jail terms of between 14 years and 20 years for murdering a man who had made his daughter and their sister pregnant.
The royal courts of justice in London jailed waiter Chomir Ali, 44, for a minimum of 20 years for ordering his sons to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, an Iranian Muslim studying electrical engineering at Oxford Brookes University.
His elder son Mujibar Rahman, 19, was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years before he could be considered for parole, while his younger son Mamnoor Rahman would have to serve a minimum of 14 years.
Judge Peter Gross called it a "cold-blooded intentional killing".
Dishonouring family
The judge said: "Far from vindicating your family's honour you have permanently dishonoured your family with the stain of murder."
The crown Court jury heard of how Ali had become angry in the summer of 2003 after his 20-year-old daughter Manna Begum begun going out with Ghorbani-Zarin, since he already had an arranged marriage planned for her.
It "embarrassed" the family that the loving couple were seen in public holding hands and kissing.
After months of attempting to stop the relationship, Ali ordered his sons to kill their sister's boyfriend.
On November 20 last year, the body of Ghorbani-Zarin, 19, was found with 46 stab wounds, mostly to the chest, in his car in an Oxford suburb.
- AFP