Danes Sentence Entire Clan for Honour Killing

From the desk of Filip van Laenen on Sun, 2006-07-02 09:53

honorkilling.jpg

This week, for the very first time, a court in Europe sentenced nine members of the same family for the honour killing of a female relative. Honour killings, where a woman is murdered for the shame that she is said to have brought on her family, are a growing phenomenon in Western Europe. In December 2005 Nazir Afzal, a spokesman of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service stated that the United Kingdom has had “at least a dozen honour killings” between 2004 and 2005. British police are investigating more than 100 cases of women who died under mysterious circumstances.  Germany was shocked last year by the murder of Hatin Surucu, a young Turkish woman who was killed by three brothers because she was “a whore who lived like a German.” A German women’s organization states that “There are no concrete statistics available, but unofficial estimates [of honour killings] are considered to be high. We get calls from women caught in difficult situations almost every two weeks.”

As in the Surucu case the general practice so far has been to sentence only the actual murderers. Last Tuesday in Denmark, however, a jury of the Østre Landsret ruled that not only the man who pulled the trigger was guilty, but every family member who collaborated in “punishing” Ghazala Khan, an 18-year old Danish-born woman of Pakistani origin, who was shot by her brother, 30-year old Akhtar Abbas, on 23 September 2005, two days after her marriage.

Ghazala had married an Afghan man, 27-year old Emal Khan, against the wishes of her father. An aunt, the youngest sister of Ghazala’s mother, who had told the young couple that she would try to reconcile them with her family, asked them to come to Slagelse train station. Her brother Akhtar shot her dead in front of the station and wounded Emal Khan, who survived the murder attempt.

On Wednesday a Danish judge sentenced Akhtar Abbas to 16 years in gaol, and the father, 57-year old Ghulam Abbas, to life imprisonment (which, if one behaves well in gaol, is reduced to 16 years). The aunt and two uncles were given 16 years as well. Other members of the family and friends who had helped to track down Ghazala received sentences of between 8 and 16 years. Two Pakistanis who do not have the Danish nationality will be expelled from Denmark after serving their prison term.

The Danish verdict is historic, not only because the entire clan was punished but also because the head of the family, who ordered the killing, was given a heavier sentence than the actual murderer. Families often choose a family member who is still a minor to carry out an honour assassination because, being a minor, he is likely to get a more lenient sentence under Western law.

Savagery of honor killing minor..

Submitted by Miriam on Sun, 2006-07-09 03:14.

Another lesson we need to learn is if the islamist gain the upper hand, they'd resort to even killing the cops as is very, very frequent in India. Let us read this,
..........
For an old unused mosque already in ruins, 1788 unrelated innocent lives were murdered. i.e.
BOMBAY RIOTS BOMBAY RIOTS BOMBAY RIOTS
#Riot report card
Number of people killed 872 [some say, it was 1788]
Number of people injured 1829
Number of people missing 443
(Government figures submitted to the Srikrishna Commission).
Number of people who fled the city 150,000
Number who sought refuge in relief camps 100,000
Loss of property Rs 40 billion
Homes burned 10,000
People left homeless 50,000
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Jul 06, 2006 Deccan Chron. Trouble erupted when two police constables deployed near the Rajiv Gandhi flyover in Bhiwandi were stoned and their skulls broken open by an angry muslim mob, which also burnt 7 State transport buses.The trouble erupted over the construction of a police station on land adjacent to a graveyard and the biggest mosque in the city.

4 killed in communal violence in Bhiwandi
http://www.deccan.com/Home/Index.asp
Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), July 6 2006: Two policemen and two ordinary citizens were killed and 39 policemen injured on Wednesday evening in a clash between the police and the residents of Nijampura area of Bhiwandi, about 65 km from Mumbai in Thane district. "
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Had the French and other Europeans known all this in this INFO AGE, they could have prevented 3-11, 7-7, French arsonists, cartoon barbarians, van Gogh murderer, etc..

A good sign.

Submitted by G-Dub on Mon, 2006-07-03 02:08.

I'm glad to see the whole lot of them convicted.  "honor" killings must be one of the most dishonorable acts man can commit.

 

Cheers to the jury of the Ostre Landsret

Submitted by truth serum on Sun, 2006-07-02 21:25.

Honor killing will never be understood by Westerners as honorable.  It is barbaric - literally.

 

Cheers to the jury of the Ostre Landsret.

 

Be prepared now for various European Muslim Groups to come out not in favor of the ruling, but will portray the family as 'victims' of Islamophobia and that Denmark needs to be more understanding in the differences of Muslim culture verses European culture. 

 

The more violent groups will rally their members with, "Denmark is persecuting Islam!" or "Death to the jurors!"

 

Hopefully, when that does happen...and it will, Rasmussen will have the guts, as I think he does, to say to them the same thing that the Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said to his country's Muslims, "Anyone who believes Islamic sharia law can co-exist with Australian law should move to a country where they feel more comfortable."

"Words Are Powerful"

Submitted by dchamil on Sun, 2006-07-02 16:20.

"maigemu" says, "Words are powerful." Quite so. As the communists have shown us, he who controls the language of debate has half-won the argument.

Not honour but shame

Submitted by maigemu on Sun, 2006-07-02 14:48.

Words are powerful. To adorn such murders with the name honour is innappropriate. They are better described as shame killings. Shame is perceived to have been brought on a family and they murder to remove the shame.
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life imprisonment

Submitted by Esther on Sun, 2006-07-02 14:29.

According to Wikipedia, maximum sentence in Denmark is 16 years, which I assume means that the father and others sentenced to 16 years will be out beforehand.  I also, therefore, do not understand whether the father really got a longer sentence than the brother who pulled the trigger.

I understand that this case is outstanding for the following reasons:

1. this is the first case where regular laws where used to charge an entire family in an "honor" murder case

2. supposedly this is the first case where the accomplices to the murder were actually judged as accomplices and not let off automatically.  (I am not sure if this is the case in Denmark.  In the Netherlands accomplices have already been charged for "honor" murders in various cases, though not on this scale).

3. this is the first case where the issue of "tainting the family honor" were not considered mitigating circumstances.

I recently wrote on my blog a review of a book on "honor" murders called Blood Revenge: Family Honor, Mediation and Outcasting by Prof. Joseph Ginat.  According to this book, a family will only turn to murder when they are publicly called to action by a family member from their side.  ie, when they are publicly accused of not doing anything to protect the family's honor.

Therefore, should the person who brought up the accusation be charged with murder?  with conspiracy to murder?  This would be like handing somebody a gun and shouting at him to pull the trigger. 

It would be interesting to find out if in this case there was such a person or such an accusation and whether that person was among those charged and convicted.

Islam In Europe

 

Commenting 101

Submitted by Dog of Flanders on Sun, 2006-07-02 12:45.

Antibureaucratic, maybe you should write your own comments instead of copying those that other persons have made, possible in different contexts.

If you want to react to statements I've made, then do so where I have made them.