Honor killing brother jailed for life for hacking to death his sister's lover

BBC News:

Ahmed Bashir, 21, was attacked with a sword and knife in the garden of his London home in 1996 after the relationship was discovered.

Waseem Afsar, 32, and Nisar Khan, 31, both of Slough, Berks, denied murder and attempted murder but were convicted at the Old Bailey.

Afsar and Khan were given life sentences with minimum terms of 18 years and 14 years respectively.

Afsar is already serving a life sentence for another murder committed before Mr Bashir's, the court heard.

The Recorder of London Judge Peter Beaumont said to Afsar: "You took a life in circumstances of extreme violence."

Detective Inspector Tariq Sarwar said: "This was murder in the name of so-called honour.

"This was a pre-planned vicious attack on Ahmed Bashir and his friend, purely on the grounds that Waseem Afsar disapproved of a relationship Bashir had had with his sister.

"This type of violence cannot be tolerated. There can be no honour in killing and people who commit these crimes are simply murderers."

Mr Bashir, of Cromwell Road, Hounslow, west London, was ambushed in the street by Afsar and Khan before being chased into his front garden and attacked with a scimitar sword and the knife.

He died after receiving 43 "significant and severe" stab wounds, mainly to his groin, according to Mr Brian Altman, prosecuting.

The Old Bailey heard Mr Bashir's 24-year-old friend Abdul Ebrahimkhail was also wounded when he tried to intervene, but survived the July attack.

Afsar had discovered that his sister Nighat had been in a relationship with Afghan-born Mr Bashir, who was refusing to give her back her car, said Mr Altman.

He forced her to reveal the affair, pressurising her to go to Pakistan, where she had earlier been forced into an arranged marriage - and then threatened to kill her, the court heard.

Mr Altman said: "He warned her that he was going to find Mr Bashir and cut his legs off so he could never walk again."

Brother guilty in 'honour' death

Pair convicted after stabbing man 43 times in ‘honour killing’