Guilty: Mitcham man jailed for part in honour killing

A Mitcham man was sentenced to eight years in jail last week for his part in an honour killing of an Iraqi woman eight years ago.

Dana Amin, 33, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of driving Banaz Mahmod’s body to Birmingham and helping to bury her.

In January 2006 Ms Mahmod was strangled by her family because of a relationship she was having while she was awaiting divorce from her arranged husband.

“We were determined not to rest until each and every person responsible for this horrendous crime had been apprehended and held to account,” said Detective Chief Inspector Glen Lloyd, of the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command.

“There is no such thing as honour in any killing and the men involved in Banaz’s murder are no more than cowards.

“Banaz was a loving, caring, young woman whose life was brutally cut short by the very people who should have loved and protected her – in any terms the ultimate betrayal.”

Ms Mahmod came from a Mirawaldy Iraqi Kurdish family who had settled in Britain in 1998.

She was first reported missing to police in January 2006 by her new boyfriend. Ms Mahmod and her boyfriend had been subjected to a number of threatening incidents from her family as regarding to their relationship. On April of that year, her body was found in a suitcase which had been buried in Handsworth.

In July 2007, Ms Mahmod’s father, Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, 58, and her uncle, Ari Mahmod, 57, were both jailed for her murder, Two months later, cousins Mohammen Saleh Ali, 31, and Omar Hussain, 35, were extradited from Iraq and convicted for over 20 years each.

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