*** UPDATED***
Thanks to Rune for the corrections.
Dymphna wrote earlier this month about the honor killing of Ghazala Khan in Denmark. In a precendent-setting move, the Danish authorities put nine family members on trial, and not just the actual killer.
Now the verdict is in: Guilty. Reader kepiblanc, translating from Danish sources, has kindly provided the following summary:
The trial of an entire family of nine for the September “honor” execution of Ghazala Khan (18) ended today…
The trial marks a turning point in Danish judicial history. It sets a precedent and there will be no turning back. Until now contemporary jurisprudence would imply that the killer (executioner) is the one to blame and accordingly face punishment. But as from today not only the man who actually pulls the trigger, but his family and friends as well are held responsible and must face the consequences of their barbaric deeds.
The jury deliberated for about 20 hours and the verdict was very clear: All defendants were found guilty of premeditated murder as charged. They will face anything from 3 years to life in prison. Sentences can be appealed to the Supreme Court, but the verdict stands.
Deportations will likely be enforced.
The trial was unusual in more than one respect, even in these “honor killing” cases. Members of the jury were threatened, witnesses openly feared acts of violence from the Muslim community and thus were reluctant to testify. Several times during the proceedings the judge had to warn the Muslim audience that he would not tolerate intimidation. Seemingly unaware of the Islamic tradition of lying through one’s teeth whenever it suits one’s purpose, he had to warn several witnesses of severe punishment if they continued to do so.
The verdict sends ripples of shock across the Muslim community in Denmark…
Those convicted are as follows:
| Ghulam Abbas: | 57 years old | |
| (father) | Convicted for urging the murder of his daughter and her husband | |
| Aktar Abbas: | 30 years old | |
| (brother) | Convicted for the murder of his sister and for attempted murder of her husband. | |
| Perveen Khan: | 40 years old | |
| (aunt) | Married to the brother of the mother of the murdered girl. Convicted for setting up the trap that led to the murder of the girl. | |
| Walayat Khan: | 46 years old | |
| (mother’s brother) | Helped setting the trap for the girl, by way of a trick “reconciliation meeting”. | |
| Anser Iqbal: | 45 years old | |
| (father’s brother) | Convicted for participating in the hunt on the girl. | |
| Asghar Ali: | 42 years old | |
| (the elder) | ||
| Naweed Sharif: | 30 years old | |
| (friend of the family) | Taxi-driver; helped in the hunt for the girl. | |
| Asghar Ali: | 31 years old | |
| (the younger; brother of aunt) | Helped in the attempts to track down the girl. | |
| Ghulam Ahmed: | 36 years old | |
| (friend of the family) | Taxi-driver; helped in the hunt for the girl. |
I had originally thought those were sentence lengths, and not the ages of the convicted perpetrators. Sentences have not yet been handed down.
I don’t know how early a parole the Danish system will allow, but in many European countries 15 years is what the average murderer will serve.
This does indeed seem to mark a turning-point in European jurisprudence dealing with Islamic honor killings. It will be interesting to see if other countries follow suit.
Note: I had Rune’s help in the translation of the lsit of conspirators and their relationships to the victim. There was some discrepancy between Rune’s version and the original Jyllands-Posten list. Further corrections from our Danish readers will be welcomed; I’ll amend the list and update the post if changes come in.
Important news! The Danes take an vital step forward.
Oh wait. I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear. The years given were the age of the convicted persons. The actual sentece is yet to be carried out. Tomorrow I think. And will unfortunately be much less that their years.
I was just about to make a comment about how nice that an unexpected glimmer of hope was coming from Europe with the severity of these sentences– but it appears that Rune has dashed those with the above comment before my fingers could touch the keyboard.
They will probably receive long sentences by danish standards, but not by american standards.
However there has been voices in danish politics calling for harsher punishment for violent crimes and I think it will happen over the following years.
– they’ll be made to undergo 40 sessions of spiritual counseling by a court appointed imam – that’s Europe’s get tough approach to the menace of fundamental islam. Seriously, do really expect any jail time for anyone except the murderer?
OK, it’s not as great a step as I had thought but it is still a significant step in the right direction. The glass is more than half full. It may be riddled with holes and leaky but one step at a time.
People in Europe are waking up to the problem. Encouragement is in order.
The next test of their system (or should I say “society”) is their response to the rioting that will ensue when the sentences are handed down.
Anyone interested in the Copenhagen Post’s article go here.
Wait for the complaints of “collective punishment” to come from some circles.
I think instead of complaining that they won’t be punished harshly enough, we should be super thrilled that they were convicted at all! I read this story with a light heart full of hope. Perhaps it is not yet too late for Europe???
It sickens me to think of family members and friends doing this to a relation. It’s so twisted and sick.
Perhaps the positive in the case is not so much that the actual sentencing likely will be much less what we could wish for (I’d guess less than 4 for all but the brother and the father), but that, for the first time, the whole network behind the killing has been unravelled and convicted. Likely it will set a precedence throughout Europe, whereby not only those who do the actual killing can be convicted – but also all the those who support the killing. Reportedly much of the immigrant community is in shock over the verdict. In a longer perspective it is expected the verdict will have a great preventive effect. But also that we in the future should be more aware that girls will be abducted to their homeland in the Middle East and murdered there.
What is nearly mind boggling is the massive support the killers have received from their community. Even after the killing. Several of the jurors have received anonymous threats and have had some of their things vandalised. Immediately following the killing a group of unknown people visited several hospitals asking for the wounded husband of the murdered girl, supposedly to finish off the job. He had to witness in court heavy disguised and in a separate chamber. A thing that have also been witness in other similar cases with violence against women of the immigrant communities. Women’s shelters in particular have had many problems with family members of fled women who try to locate them and force them home. Most now have several polices to protect them; never order a taxi with an immigrant driver to transport women, always only have one women of each nationality at the shelter (since it was becoming common that a woman’s female relatives would enter the shelter and try to pressure the women to come back to the violent husband) etc.
There will always be maniacs. There have also been sad cases where children have been killed by their ethnic Danish fathers. But it’s the whole tacit or active support of the community that sickens me.
Just a quick translation from a fresh report, looks better than I had anticipated:
No reduced sentence
Eight of nine will receive a minimum of five years prison time for the “honour” killing on Ghazala Khan. One has the possible to receive a lesser sentence.
That was the verdict of the jury this evening.
The penalty bracket goes from five years to life in prison.
One of the convicted persons – a 30 year old man, whom was employed as a taxi driver by the family – has as the only one a possibility to get a lesser than five year sentence, decided the jury. But he also can receive a sentence above five years.
The follow-up information will say a lot about the state of European law.
But at least there has been a trial and not just a head-in-the-sand, cultural-relativism reaction so far.
The important thing is, that the precedent has been set now. The benchmark has been established. Whatever comes next will be dealt with.
We cannot right all the wrongs at once, nor can we eradicate the threat of this ever happening again. But it is a decisive moment and one must take comfort in the fact that, finally, the law is being upheld and these people have now been found guilty.
One battle won will not win the war, but it will weaken the enemy.
Take solace in that. This is good news. We should be celebrating.
In the future all muslim women leaving the country should be asked whether they are leaving voluntarily. That way they cannot be kidnapped, taken to the old country and murdered. It is heartening that Denmark is starting to care about Muslim women, if only the feminists in the States would do so.
We should keep in mind that when it comes to being gutsy and brave, Denmark is Europe’s equivalent of Texas. Their Vikings were much like our cowboys. The country might want to adopt as its motto, “Don’t mess with Denmark.”
I remember being in a Copenhagen museum covering Danish resistance to Nazi Germany and seeing a map of railroad bridges and tracks that were blow up. There were so many, you could map the country’s rail system by them. Denmark also managed to rescue virtually all their Jewish population by hiding them in hospitals and churches until they could be safely transported to Sweden in fishing boats. Compare that to France, where the French police assisted with deportations to death camps or Germany, which voted Nazism into power.
It’s too much to expect “Old Europe” to follow the lead of the U.S., but perhaps brave Denmark can lead them in the proper direction.
–Mike Perry, editor of Dachau Liberated
Rather than put them in jail, where
they can proselytize and recruit,
I think Denmark would be better off
just deporting the lot of them back
to whatever benighted land they
came from.
Of course that would really get the
Euroleftists enraged. They would
cite some ridiculous passage from
the EHRC just as an asinine English
judge did when he ruled that Afghan
hijackers could not be sent back to
Afghanistan but must be allowed to
remain ( on the dole) in England!
Still worth a try. Kick these men
out and you’ll probably uproot a
hundred or more of their kin and
that would be both cheaper and more
effective than letting them lounge
around in some Danish prison for a
few years.
All I’ve got to say is…A pint of Carlsberg for everybody! Skål!
All I’ve got to say is…A pint of Carlsberg for everybody! Skål!
Well, the Danes got one right.
Anyone want to take bets when the Islamofascist bombs start going off in Copenhagen?
The judgment against the whole family is only right. Even if this were not a Muslim-inspired honor killing, all would be guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, or complicit before or after the fact, guilty of aiding and abetting in some manner. It happens all the time.
Zerosumgame said, “Anyone want to take bets when the Islamofascist bombs start going off in Copenhagen?”
This was actually my own first reaction. Ok, the Danes have taken a bold, correct step — but I feel we are now waiting for the other shoe to drop, whether it is bombs, or a replay of the world rioting over the last Danish/Muslim dispute, the Cartoons.
I urge the Danes to increase vigilence both at home and for Danish interests abroad, while we non-Danes must show immediate, direct support by a concerted campain to “buy Danish.”
d’n said I urge the Danes to increase vigilence both at home and for Danish interests abroad, while we non-Danes must show immediate, direct support by a concerted campain to “buy Danish.”
The problem is that too much of Europe has already capitulated to terrorism. Spain surrendered militarily after 3/11. Britain has surrendered culturally after 7/7. Again, the Danes are buffeted by the same forces as these nations –a far-left, multiculturalist propganda news media; a dysfunctional, anti-American and anti-Semitic intelligentsia, and an anti-Democratic EU bureaucracy set to impose such PC idiocy over the Danes whether they want it or not.
It is thus hard to believe that the Danes are so idiosyncratic that they will manage to reject all these forces (which have been acting upon them for decades), and manage to hold fast when the first bus is blown up.
Personally, I think these murderers are free and on their way back to the Islamic world as heroes within 48 hours of such a blast.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that…Despite the fact that media here in Britain acquiesced completely during the cartoon fiasco, most people I know still harbour resentment about the demonstration in London. Even moreso due to the fact that none of them will be prosecuted. I think it’s time for security to restore law and order before we see a rise in vigilante-style tit-for-tat attacks like the ones in the Netherlands a couple of years back. I think that Denmark is showing the rest of the world the way…You prosecute these crimes and show people that it is a country based on rule of law. If you come to Denmark, you abide by Danish laws. Are any of them citizens, or just residents?
When does Submission two come out again?
I wouldn’t be so sure about that…Despite the fact that media here in Britain acquiesced completely during the cartoon fiasco, most people I know still harbour resentment about the demonstration in London. Even moreso due to the fact that none of them will be prosecuted. I think it’s time for security to restore law and order before we see a rise in vigilante-style tit-for-tat attacks like the ones in the Netherlands a couple of years back. I think that Denmark is showing the rest of the world the way…You prosecute these crimes and show people that it is a country based on rule of law. If you come to Denmark, you abide by Danish laws. Are any of them citizens, or just residents?
When does Submission two come out again?
God bless the Danes, the only hope for the Western world today.
Adventuress Said:
God bless the Danes, the only hope for the Western world today.
The only hope for Europe, maybe. The only hope for the world?
Americans and Australians would seriously argue that.
We Aussies most definitely would, zerosumgame. Mind you, we love a good argument any day, so that’s not saying too much!
Great news from Denmark. Next time I have a drink, I’ll be raising my glass to you.
We’ve had the trial of the men arrested last year as terrorist suspects hit a stumbling block because their lawyers are refusing to undergo security clearance checks.
Of course, the lawyer doing the most bleating about the new regulations requiring security checks is none other than Adam Houda, so that comes as no surprise.
I just hope that the courts won’t let this get in the way of a proper trial.
Well I remember the case against the Lebanese gang rape factory you had in Australia, and the remarkable (and just) long sentences they received. I only wish the killers in this case will receive a similar harsh sentencing. Not likely though. Also Denmark, like any other European country is never more than one election away from the claws of stupid liberal mootbats.
btw. The sentencing is still not in. But it has just been revealed that the prosecuter demands life in prison for the murdered girl’s father, brother, uncle, aunt and cousin. The three helpers she demands be sentenced to prison of no less than ten years. Though I still doubt anyone will be sentence to life, since this sentence is normally reserved for the murder of children and police officers. Also the three convicted in the case which do not have a Danish citizenship will l be expelled from the country when they have served their sentence.
Also see: “Honour” killing verdict sets precedent
Sentences :
Father : Life
Brother : 16 years
Uncle 1 : 16 years
Uncle 2 : 16 years
Aunt : 14 years + deportation
Cousin : 14 years + deportation
Friend 1 : 10 years
Friend 2 : 10 years
Friend 3 : 8 years
Somewhat related to this and a little unusual, also in denmark:
The murder of a 31 years old Pakistani was prevented, when her brother refused to do the killing.
To men where imprisoned today(13.jul) for particepating in a “beatingteam” with the purpose of persuading the 43 years old brother to kill his sister.
Surposedly they had attacked him with clubs back in June. The 43 years old tells that, the father instructed him last year, to kill his little sister, as she wanted to get out of an arranged marriage.
The police of Helsingør informs, that they put great trust in the mans explenation. All in all, 7 people have been arrested.
These barbaric murderous monkeys should be given life in prison at least, they deserve death. Will this cultural garbage wake up the multicultural elites? I fear not yet.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
fathers may kill their daughters
if they feel dishonored
when she leaves dirtball husband
.