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Rania Alayed case: 'Westernised' wife 'murdered by husband' | Rania Alayed case: 'Westernised' wife 'murdered by husband' |
(about 3 hours later) | |
A mother of three from Manchester was murdered by her husband for becoming "too westernised" and "establishing an independent life", a court has heard. | A mother of three from Manchester was murdered by her husband for becoming "too westernised" and "establishing an independent life", a court has heard. |
Rania Alayed, 25, went missing last June but her body has never been found. | |
Ahmed Al-Khatib admits causing her death, claiming he was "possessed of a spirit" when he pushed her, causing her to stumble, fall and bang her head. | |
Al-Khatib, of Gorton, and his brother Muhaned Al-Khatib, of Salford, both deny murder. | |
Ms Alayed went to drop off her children at the flat of the defendant's brother where she was said to have been murdered. | |
'Comply or be killed' | |
Her brother-in-law, Muhaned Al-Khatib, 38, left the address with the children some 45 minutes later and shortly afterwards her husband, Ahmed Al-Khatib, 35, walked out wearing some of her traditional clothing with a suitcase containing her corpse, the Manchester Crown Court jury was told. | |
Muhaned Al-Khatib said he was not present at the time that any violence was used against Ms Alayed and did not bear any responsibility for her murder, the court heard. | |
It is alleged that in the early hours of the next day the two brothers, and another sibling, drove the body from the Manchester area to North Yorkshire where she was buried. | |
The prosecution told the jury the mother of three, from Cheetham Hill, had been "in fear of her husband" Al-Khatib and "believed he might one day kill her". | |
She had sought help from the Citizens Advice Bureau, the police and eventually a solicitor which had angered her husband's family, the court heard. | |
Tony Cross QC, prosecuting, said: "The family of the defendants were insulted that she had gone to the law. They wanted her and her children back within the family fold. | |
"They believed that she was establishing an independent life, perhaps with another man. Therefore, it was decided that she should either be forced to comply or be killed." | |
He added that in her husband's eyes she "began to become a little too westernised and had friends, male and female". | |
"This was all too much for the first two defendants," he said. | |
Al-Khatib and and his brother admit intending to pervert the course of justice by transporting and concealing the body of Ms Alayed. | |
A third brother, Hussain Al-Khatib, 34, of Knutsford Road, Gorton, denies the latter charge. | |
The trial continues. | The trial continues. |