Shafilea Ahmed's sister told friend her father 'did it', court hears

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/shafilea-ahmed-father

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Alesha Ahmed told a family friend her sister Shafilea was stabbed by their father and the body was "in pieces", a jury has heard.

Shafilea's parents Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, deny murdering the 17-year-old by suffocating her at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

The teenager's decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 but it was not until 2010 that Alesha provided police with the "final piece of the puzzle" about her death, the prosecution said.

Giving evidence on Friday, Sehreen Shafaat, 22, a close friend of the Ahmed children, said Alesha told her that Iftikhar Ahmed stabbed Shafilea.

Law graduate Shafaat, a trainee barrister, told the jury she had known the family as a small child and after Shafilea's death became close to the Ahmeds' other daughters, Alesha and Mevish.

They attended the same college and she would frequently socialise or study with them at their home, the jury heard.

Following a study session, Shafaat said she and Alesha were in her car when Alesha turned to her and said the family "were not getting on".

Shafaat, wearing a black headscarf, said: "Alesha said there was no happiness and although the family looked happy on the outside, it wasn't happy on the inside."

She described Alesha as upset and crying and said: "And then she just came out with 'My dad did it'."

Shafaat said she knew what Alesha was talking about and was shocked, replying: "What?"

"And she said, 'Yeah, my dad killed her'," the witness went on.

"I asked if she was serious and how [it happened]. I didn't mean to ask how but it just came out, I didn't know what to say."

Henry Riding, for the prosecution, asked Shafaat to tell the jury what happened next.

She said she couldn't remember the order in which things were said but told the jury Alesha said "something like", "My dad stabbed her and the body was all in pieces".

"I can't remember if she said she had actually seen her dad stab Shafilea," Shafaat said.

"During the conversation she told me her dad had been violent in the past and she used the word 'strangle' but I can't remember if that was to do with the incident with Shafilea or something else.

"She definitely said the body was in pieces but I can't remember exactly what else she said."

Earlier in the trial, Alesha described how her parents pushed Shafilea on to the sofa in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" in Urdu as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

The couple murdered their "westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family, the prosecution claims.

The trial continues.