JHELUM: A court on Saturday adjourned the case of a British-Pakistani woman’s murder until Sept 23 to give police more time to finalise charges against her father and former husband who are accused of slaying her in the name of honour.
Police brought both men before the court with their faces covered and avoided questions from journalists.
However, when pressed, Samia Shahid’s father Mohammad Shahid told reporters that the accusations were “all lies”. “Police arrested me, police charged me, you go to police station and check my report, check my statement,” he said.
The Bradford native’s death while visiting Pakistan in July was originally declared to be from natural causes. But the woman’s second husband Mukhtar Kazim publicly accused the family of killing her upon which the case was reopened and a police inquiry quickly concluded her death as a “premeditated, cold-blooded murder”.
Police alleged that Shahid stood guard while his daughter’s ex-husband, Mohammed Shakeel, raped her. The men then both strangled her, according to police.
Defence lawyer Mohammed Arif dismissed the police allegations as baseless, saying his clients had wrongly been accused. He said he would appeal the court’s recent rejection of bail for Shahid.
Najful Hussain Shah, Mr Kazim’s lawyer, told reporters that he would seek the death penalty for the accused.
Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2016