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WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Bekhal Mahmod has opened up about the heartbreaking murder of her sister Banaz Mahmod that was orchestrated by their dad and uncle
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Bekhal Mahmod has opened up about the heartbreaking murder of her sister Banaz Mahmod that was orchestrated by their dad and uncleA woman living in witness protection after going up against her own family in court has opened up about the last time she saw her sister alive.in February 2006 at the age of just 20 — and she knew that her father and uncle were responsible for it.
For her own safety, she has had to keep her identity a secret ever since, but she has now shared harrowing details about the final ever time she met up with her sibling. At the time, Banaz, who moved to the UK with her family from Iraq in 1998, had been forced into an arranged marriage with a man 10 years her senior, and she was often beaten and raped by him.
Bekhal said she was treated like a “slave” and as for their last ever encounter, she said: “Not good. Her face was drawn in. You could see her cheekbones sticking out. Her eye sockets was sunk in.
Banaz found the courage to leave the relationship before falling in love with a man of her choosing. However, her family felt this brought “shame” on their name, and they arranged for her to be killed to restore their “honour” in the Kurdish community. Bekhal, like her sister, grew up in Iraq, where they were severely restricted about what they could say, witness and wear.
At the age of eight, Bekhal was forced into female genital mutilation and at the age of 14 she moved to the UK where the family lived in Mitcham, South London. And it was there, at the family home, where Banaz was murdered, simply for leaving her abusive husband. It happened on the morning of January 24, 2006, and her dad, Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, and uncle, Ari Agha Mahmod, plotted the whole thing.
According to disturbing reports, Hama boasted about raping her and said he stamped on her head to “get her soul out”. It happened in the living room of the family home and after being tortured, Banaz was strangled with a bootlace before being dumped into a suitcase. Bekhal reflected: “They marked who was going to do who, who had what part to play, who was going to get paid, they did what they did to her.
They strangled her, they did horrific things to her and they took her life in my family’s home. ”She continued: “The very same people that were meant to protect her, they left home willing to let these people come into the house and take her and her life, stuff her into a suitcase and take her away in a hired car miles away to be buried in an abandoned home like she was trash that just got taken out.
” Her body was not found for three months but her father and uncle were arrested after Banaz’s boyfriend, Rahmet Sulemani, who tragically took his own life in 2016, reported her missing. Banaz’s father was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years for murder, her uncle received the same sentence but with a minimum term of 23 years.
Her cousins were also found guilty of murder and Hussain and Ali got minimum terms of 22 years and 21 years. Bekhal, who is now proposing Banaz’s Law in the UK so “honour” abuse can be a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing, said: “I wish it was more. I wish they wouldn’t see a day of light outside the prison again because that’s how I feel.
As for what it was like testifying against her family members, she added: “I feared for my life like I had never before. But every time I wanted to back out, I thought of Banaz.
“She is not here. Who is defending her? I couldn’t sit there and live with myself knowing that Banaz’s life was taken and I knew who was responsible. ” And giving a heartbreaking insight into what her life looks like now in witness protection, she described it as “very isolating”.
She added: “Hearing people talking in my language makes me tense up. It makes me abandon my shopping. I look at people walking down the street, two, three generations together, and I envy that. I don’t have that. It’s, yeah, it’s not easy. ”
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