Dubai resident Samia Shahid was killed in July. Police said her family had not accepted her second marriage. Courtesy Mukhtar Kazim
Dubai resident Samia Shahid was killed in July. Police said her family had not accepted her second marriage. Courtesy Mukhtar Kazim

Trial opens in Pakistan over rape and murder of Dubai-based woman



ISLAMABAD // The trials of the father and former husband of a Dubai British expatriate over her rape and murder opened at a court in Pakistan on Tuesday.

The court delivered copies of the charge sheet to father Mohammed Shahid and former husband Mohammed Shakeel, said defence lawyer Mohammed Arif.

Mr Shahid and Mr Shakeel are accused of strangling Samia Shahid, 28, because she married a second time without her family’s acceptance.

They must decide by October 7 whether to plead guilty or not guilty, Mr Arif said. He said both men were in court for the trial presided over by judge Ambreen Qureshi.

After he appeared at a pretrial hearing last week, Mr Shahid denied all charges when speaking outside the courtroom.

“We will contest the case,” Mr Arif said on Tuesday.

Samia Shahid’s family had initially claimed she had died of natural causes during her July trip to Pakistan. But after her second husband Mukhtar Kazim complained to police, they reopened the case.

A police investigation concluded that Ms Shahid’s former husband raped her as the father stood guard, before they both strangled her. It described the killing as “premeditated, cold-blooded murder”.

The investigation also implicated the victim’s mother, Imtiaz Bibi, and sister Madiha Shahid, who are British nationals, in the death.

It accused them of luring the victim into the plot. It said both women escaped back to England after the killing, and suggested they should be extradited to Pakistan to be tried on charges of abetting.

Samia married her first husband in February 2012 but stayed only briefly in Pakistan before returning to England where she obtained a divorce two years later. She then married Mr Kazim and they moved to Dubai.

Her family never accepted the second marriage, because Mr Kazim is a Shiite Muslim and not a relative, the police report said.

Pakistan reports nearly 1,000 killings over so called “family honour” every year.

* Associated Press

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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest

Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.

Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.

Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.

Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.

Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.

Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia

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