Posted on 06/27/2006 2:18:12 PM PDT by EBH
A landmark verdict finds nine people guilty for conspiring to kill a young Pakistani woman and her husband in the largest honour killing case ever tried in Europe
The High Court of Eastern Denmark delivered a 'guilty' verdict on Tuesday to all nine defendants in the most far-reaching honour killing ever tried in Europe.
The verdict is considered a landmark finding, since not only the brother who fired the gun that killed Ghazala Khan was found guilty.
The court also found Ghazala's father and seven others guilty of conspiring to murder the young Pakistani woman and her husband for disobeying orders not to marry last September. Jurors determined that a group of uncles, aunts and acquaintances apparently plotted to lure the couple to the train station of Slagelse in western Zealand, where the brother waited with a loaded gun.
Ghazala suffered fatal wounds while her newly wed husband narrowly escaped death.
Although lawyers of seven of the defendants sought a reduced sentence for their clients, jurors rejected their plea that mitigating circumstances should release a milder sentence.
The verdict came as no surprise to Vagn Greve, a law professor at Copenhagen University. Jurors merely made use of Danish law's broad guidelines in defining who acts as an accomplice in 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.'
Legal experts in Germany, Sweden and other countries have followed the case closely, since it marks the first time accomplices have been found guilty in an honour killing.
Jail for Denmark 'honour' killing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5128206.stm
Ghazala Khan's secret marriage had angered her family
A court in Denmark has jailed a Pakistani man for life for ordering the murder of his 18-year-old daughter.
Ghazala Khan was shot dead two days after her wedding, because the family opposed her choice of husband.
She died and her husband was wounded last September at a train station in Slagelse, a village west of Copenhagen.
The court also set 16-year jail terms for Mr Abbas' older son, Akhtar Khan, who admitted shooting his sister and two uncles.
The life sentence on the father, Ghulum Abbas, is commuted automatically to 16 years under Danish law.
Five other relatives and friends from the Pakistani community in Denmark who had helped track down the bride and her new husband received sentences of between eight and 14 years.
Two of them, an aunt and another uncle who are still Pakistani nationals, face deportation after their sentences.
Is this somehow less bad than a dishonour killing?
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