Jury out in Shafilea murder trial (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Jury out in Shafilea murder trial

12:02pm Thursday 2nd August 2012 in News

A JURY has begun considering its verdicts in the trial of a couple accused of murdering of their daughter because they believed she brought ‘shame on the family’.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, Cheshire, are alleged to have suffocated their 17-year-old daughter Shafilea with a plastic bag.

The teenager disappeared in September 2003 and her body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria the following February.

Chester Crown Court had heard that on one occassion before her death she fled to Blackburn.

The prosecution claims Shafilea was killed by her parents because she brought shame on the family by her desire to lead a ‘westernised’ lifestyle.

The 10-week trial heard evidence from Shafilea’s sister Alesha, who claimed she and the rest of her siblings witnessed the murder at the family home. Taxi driver Mr Ahmed denies murder, saying Shafilea ran away from home in the middle of the night and he never saw her again.

Mrs Ahmed also denies murder but told the jury she saw her husband beat her eldest child and she believes he killed her.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans sent the seven men and five women of the jury out to begin their deliberations shortly before 11.10am.

After failing to reach verdicts yesterday the jury was sent home and will return to continue its deliberations at 2pm.