Parents Re-Arrested Over 'Honour Killing'

Fri, 03 September 2010 Courtesy of: Ananova

The parents of a Muslim teenager suspected to be the victim of an honour killing have been arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Shafilea Ahmed, 17, disappeared from her home in Warrington, Cheshire, in October 2003, amid fears that she was being forced into an arranged marriage.

Her decomposed remains were found five months later in Cumbria.

“My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there”

Shafilea's father, Iftikhar, and mother, Faranza, were initially arrested on suspicion of kidnapping but were later released without charge.

Police sources have now confirmed the couple have been re-arrested and are being held on suspicion of the murder of their daughter.

The couple have always denied any involvement in her death, saying they would never have forced her into a marriage she did not want.

At the inquest into her death, Shafilea was said to have met a prospective husband during a trip to Pakistan but had refused an arranged marriage.

The Bradford-born teenager, who hoped to become a solicitor, was reported missing a week after her disappearance by a former school teacher.

Mr Ahmed said he did not report her missing because police dismissed his previous reports that she had disappeared in November 2002 and January 2003.

Shafilea also ran away for 10 days in February 2003 when she told housing officers: "My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there."

No one has ever been charged in connection with Shafilea's death.

In 2008, the coroner at her inquest recorded a verdict of "unlawful killing" - a ruling her family tried and failed to overturn in the High Court.