Shafilea’s sister thinks her killer parents are innocent

A daughter whose Muslim parents murdered her eldest sister in front in a so-called ‘honour killing’ insists they are innocent and still visits them in prison, her former best friend has revealed.

Mevish Ahmed remains loyal to Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, despite them suffocating 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed by stuffing a plastic bag down her throat as her four siblings looked on in 2003.

Even after they have spent five years behind bars, Mevish, 26, in is regular contact by phone and text and visits them frequently, the friend said.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Shahin Munir, the best friend who found out about the murder and gave key evidence at the 2012 trial, said: ‘I think there are a lot of emotions in play.

Killers: Mevish remains loyal to parents Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed (above), who murdered 17-year-old Shafilea by stuffing a plastic bag down her throat in front of her four siblings in 2003.

Speaking out: Mevish’s former best friend Shahin Munir, above, gave evidence in the 2012 trial which helped jail the couple over Shafelia’s murder.

‘She is in contact with them by phone or text. I know she still supports them, she still visits them [in prison] and helps them.

‘Mevish would still deny that they did anything. Even though it was me she was talking to, she would still deny it.’

Mevish still lives in the family home in Bradford where the murder took place, Shahin, 27, added, and is unable to shake off her parents’ mind games. 

‘When you grow up in an environment that is so controlling, it is very hard to break away from it,’ she said.

Sentencing the couple, Mr Justice Evans described the level of control the parents exerted over Mevish.

He said: ‘Mevish, after a period of trying to live independently, was recaptured and brought home, and has since become compliant with your wishes.’

He added: ‘You killed one daughter, but you have blighted the lives of your remaining children.’

A recent documentary showed how taxi driver Iftikhar, 57, and 54-year-old Farzana killed Shafilea because she did not fully conform to the traditions of ‘rural Pakistan’. 

‘Honour killing’: Shafilea’s parents avoided justice for nine years, insisting in television interviews that they were not guilty. The documentary (above) showed how an inadvertent nod made by the killer father on television betrayed his guilt to a body language expert.

Unmasked: It later emerged that Ifthikar , above, was a bigamist who married Farzana behind his first wife’s back, abandoning their three-year-old son. He had also ’embraced western culture’, dated white girls and loved going to discos in tight jeans.

Jailed: Shafilea’s parents were finally arrested in 2010 when the victim’s younger sister, Alesha, told police about the 2003 killing. Their trial heard how her mother commanded her father in Urdu to ‘just finish it here’, Alesha said.

Her parents avoided justice for nine years, insisting in television interviews that they were not guilty. 

The documentary showed how an inadvertent nod made by her killer father on television betrayed his guilt to a body language expert.

It later emerged that Ifthikar was an bigamist who married Farzana behind his first wife’s back, abandoning their three-year-old son.

He had also ’embraced western culture’, dated white girls, loved going to discos in tight jeans and preferred to be known as ‘Buzzer’.

The pair were finally arrested in 2010 when Shafilea’s younger sister, Alesha, arranged for her own house to be robbed in an apparent cry for help before telling police about the killing.

At the trial, Alesha, who is now in a witness protection programme, described in graphic detail how Shafilea was killed.

Her mother commanded her father in Urdu to ‘just finish it here’, she said. 

The couple then forced Shafilea onto the sofa and pressed a plastic bag into her mouth, blocking her airways.

Alesha said her sister’s eyes were wide open and her legs were kicking. She realised Shafilea was dead when she went limp.

Her father punched her sister’s lifeless body in the chest and later she saw her mother preparing sheets, black bags and rolls of tape in the kitchen, she said.

She then saw her father carrying a bundle which she understood to be her sister’s corpse.

Mevish wrote details of the killing in letters to Shahin, who testified against the parents.

One of Mevish’s letters said: ‘They treated [Shafilea] like s***. Even when she was a kid, she’d get beaten. I’d do anything to change that night. I wish I’d never seen, but I did. I even seen the suitcase they took her in. They knocked me over and smacked me coz I seen.

‘How did that happen coz I was there? Why didn’t I stop it. Imagine if people knew what I was writing now. That’s it. I’d be gone.’

But in an extraordinary development, Mevish defended her parents on the witness stand, claiming that her letter describing the murder was ‘fiction’ and casting doubt on her best friend’s testimony. 

Damning: Shahin had been told about the killing in letters from Mevish. She testified against the parents, showing the court photocopies of the letters as well as her own diary (above)

Evidence: Mevish wrote in one of her letters: ‘They treated [Shafilea] like s***. I’d do anything to change that night. I wish I’d never seen, but I did. I even seen the suitcase they took her in. They knocked me over and smacked me coz I seen’. Shahin wrote about it in her diary (above).

She also admitted making silent phone calls to Shahin, though said that this was a joke rather than an attempt to bully her into retracting her statement.

At the trial, the judge said: ‘[Mevish] came to court and was placed in the sad position of having to deny her own words in order to try and help the parents she and no doubt all your surviving children still care for.’

As a result, Shahin’s friendship with Mevish broke down. ‘Before I came forward I did tell [Mevish] I would [give evidence] do so. She knew I used to keep a diary. She completely changed. She wasn’t my friend anymore.

‘She came round once and demanded to have my diaries, and held my wrist against the wall. It was then that I thought something was very much changed.’

In recent years the two friends have spoken several times in an attempt to rekindle their friendship. It was during the course of these conversations that Shahin realised that Mevish was still in close contact with her parents.

‘Whenever we have spoken over the past few years it has only ever ended up in an argument,’ Shahin said. ‘We both just realise that the friendship is not going to work. Mevish would still defend them now.’

The two friends last spoke last year. ‘I accepted we aren’t friends anymore and I understand,’ she said. ‘It’s quite sad because we used to be close. She still blames me for her mum and dad being behind bars.’

MailOnline has contacted Mevish for a response to her friend’s claims. 

Shahin said deciding to give evidence in the trial was agonising, as she too had been living in fear of physical violence even though she was not related to the killers.

‘It was such a difficult position to be in. I really believed the police wouldn’t be able to press charges because they would deny it, and then both of our lives would be in danger.

In custody: At taxi driver Ifthikar’s, above, 2012 trial, the judge said: ‘[Mevish] came to court and was placed in the sad position of having to deny her own words in order to try and help the parents she and no doubt all your surviving children still care for’

In touch: Shahin says Mevish is still in close contact with her parents and insists they didn’t kill Shafilea. Pictured: Farzana being taken to court in 2012

Shahin said she last spoke to Mevish last year: ‘I accepted we aren’t friends anymore and I understand. It’s quite sad because we used to be close… She still blames me for her mum and dad being behind bars’, she added.

‘Mevish said I could never say anything to anyone, even if it happened to her. I was so afraid. I thought if I went to the police I would put both of us in that position, and we would get killed.

‘I didn’t want the same thing that happened to Shafilea to happen to her. I had to weigh up the decision to put our lives at risk.’

The moment that she was given Mevish’s letters revealing details of the murder was a turning point, she said.

‘We arranged to meet when she was in town with her mum,’ Shahin recalled. ‘I was in H&M, and she came in and dropped them on the floor, she didn’t even look at me. I had to keep my head down so her mum wouldn’t see.

‘When I got them I went straight home, went into my bedroom, shut the door and sat on my bed and read them.

‘It’s horrific. Reading them, you understand exactly what happened. There had been loads of news about Shafilea, and then to actually have it there on paper. To think it was done in front of her family.’

In the nine years between the murder and the parents being brought to trial, the ‘honour killing’ was kept secret within the family, Shahin said. ‘But as time went on it became more difficult to keep the secret.’ 

Giving evidence was the hardest decision Shahin had ever had to make, she told Mail Online. ‘I didn’t want the same thing that happened to Shafilea to happen to her. I had to weigh up the decision to put our lives at risk.’ Pictured: Shafilea’s coffin being taken from her Bradford home

Shahin said she is glad that the new documentary has brought the subject of honour killings into the public debate once again. Pictured: Forensic police teams discover Shafilea’s body close to the River Kent in Cumbria.

She added that she is glad the new documentary has brought the subject of honour killings into the public debate once again. 

‘There’s no such thing as an honour killing. It’s just plain murder. I think it’s disgusting for a parent to be able to do that to their own child. You should love them no matter what.’