AFTER almost nine years of police investigations there were crucial parts of evidence which culminated in the conviction of Ifitkhar and Farzana Ahmed.

 

Alesha

THE investigation was turned on its head in August 2010 when Alesha Ahmed was arrested for a robbery at the family home on Liverpool Road.

Shafilea’s sister made the revelation to police that she had seen her parents kill Shafilea in the living room on the night of September 11, 2003.

She was first to take the stand.

During questioning she told the court her parents stuffed a plastic bag in the teenager’s mouth and suffocated her.

She said Farzana said to Ifitkhar ‘to just finish it tonight’.

Weeping, the 23-year-old told the court her mum pushed Shafilea on the settee and they grabbed a plastic bag and stuffed it into her mouth, holding it down.

 

Alesha said Shafilea was kicking her legs. “Her eyes were open really wide,” she told the court.
“I could tell she was just gasping for air. She wet herself because she was struggling. That was it, she was gone.”

 

The letters


ALESHA’S evidence triggered a friend of Mevish Ahmed, a younger sister, to come forward with letters written by Mevish in 2008.

Mevish was due to be called as a defence witness in support of her parents’ cases against the murder charge.

But when the letters, allegedly detailing her seeing her sister being killed, were brought to light Mevish was called to give evidence by Mr Justice Roderick Evans.

One extract read: “I seen I tried to stop it but turn round and hit me. Why did da rest just sit and watch. It wasn’t a show. She was hurting. Three times she ran but they got her. I’d do anything to change that night.”

But when examined Mevish said: “It was just free writing, it was just me writing the story.”

 

 

Farzana changes evidence

FOR eight years both Iftikhar and Farzana had maintained that Shafilea had run away from home on the last night she was seen alive.

But as the prosecution case ended that all changed. Farzana suddenly accused her husband of threatening to kill his other children if she revealed the truth.

In a dramatic twist she claimed to have witnessed Iftikhar brutally beating Shafilea on that fateful night and that she lied because she was in fear of him.

In a new statement read out to court she said she asked where Shafilea was after the attack.

Ifitkhar had told her: “If you care for your dear life and that of your children don’t you ever ask me this question again.”