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June 27, 2006
Denmark: Nine Muslim Family Members Guilty Of Honor Killing
We reported that nine members of a Pakistani family based in Denmark were put on trial on Monday May 15. They were accused on charges of conspiring to murder, relating to the killing of Ghazala Khan (pictured left) on September 23 last year.
Ghazala was shot in the street, in broad daylight, outside Slagelse train station, in western Zealand, west of Copenhagen. The incident, captured on camera (below) involved Ghazala being shot twice in the heart by her 29-year old brother. The brother also shot Ghazala's Afghan husband, the reason for the family's anger.
The brother had insisted that the shooting was accidental, and that he had no intention of killing Ghazala. She had betrayed the family's "honour" by marrying her Afghan boyfriend in secret, and not gaining her parents' consent. This had been the ninth case of honor killing in a decade in Denmark, the prosecution claimed.
Now, according to Denmark's Jyllands-Posten and the Copenhagen Post, all nine members of the family have been found guilty of manslaughter at the High Court of Eastern Denmark. The shooting had happened after they couple had been hunted down throughout Denmark by vengeful relatives. Ghazala Khan's mother and father were also among those found guilty.
They will be facing sentences ranging from 5 years to life imprisonment. The family's defense attorney, Bjorn Elmquist, announced following the case that the trial had been conducted in an atmosphere of racial hatred and prejudice.
The case is a landmark, as it is the first time that other family members have been found guilty of being accomplices to an honour killing. Seven of the defendants had sought a reduced sentence, but jurors rejected this, finding that there were no mitigating circumstances.
The jurors claimed that aunts, uncles and other acquaintances within the family circle had plotted to lure the newlywed couple to Slaglese raliway station, where the 29-year old brother lay in wait with a loaded gun.
A law professor at Copenhagen University, Vagn Greve, said that jurors merely made use of Denmark's existing laws, which broadly define what constitutes an "accomplice" to a crime. He said: "From what I have heard and read, I cannot see that we have done anything new. The jurors found that existing rules should be put to use."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 27, 2006 2:49 PM
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