This month marks the 20th anniversary of the brutal and vile ‘honour’ rape and killing of Banaz Mahmod, but two decades on, her surviving sister is still living in fear
It was a murder case that sent shockwaves through Britain. Twenty years ago, Banaz Mahmood was brutally raped and murdered in her family home as part of a so-called ‘honour killing’ ordered by her own father.
Banaz was just 20 when she was subjected to two hours of torture and rape in the living room of her parents’ home, while held down by her two cousins.
She was subsequently strangled with a bootlace and her body discarded in a suitcase, all because her father Mahmod Babakir Mahmod felt she had brought shame to her family for leaving the older abusive husband he had arranged for her to marry at just 17.
READ MORE: Banaz Mahmod’s boyfriend’s brave act before he was honour killing’s final victim
Her sister Bekhal Mahmod now lives under a new identity, separated from her Iraqi-Kurdish family, and said that even now she still lives in fear. She told the Guardian: “I’m always looking over my shoulder. I’m never going to let my guard down.”
Bekhal, who testified at the 2007 murder trial, explained that what happened to her sister continues to haunt her, adding: “It can take the smallest thing, like somebody saying the word Iraq… my head turns instantly, it’s a fear.”
Banaz lived in Mitcham, South London with her family, who moved to England when she was just 10 after her father, a former soldier, sought asylum in the UK while escaping Saddam Hussein. Growing up, Banaz and her four sisters endured abuse at the hands of their father, which only intensified after settling in the UK.
She was forced into an arranged marriage with a man ten years her senior when she was 17, and endured repeated beatings and rapes by that husband. When one of her sisters found her covered in bruises, she confronted Banaz’s husband, who told the family: “Yes, I do beat your daughter but it’s because she’s disrespectful. And yes I do force her to have sex, but only when she says no.”
After two years, she left him and returned to the family home and quietly began seeing a man called Rahmat Sulemani. The pair were desperately in love but their relationship was forbidden as she was still, technically, a married woman.
It was after the pair were spotted kissing at Moden Tube station in London that her father called a secret summit with her uncle Ari Agha Mahmod in which is was decided that she and her boyfriend would both be murdered.
They felt Banaz had brought shame on the Iraqi-Kurdish family and wanted to restore their “honour” within the Kurdish community. Banaz became aware of the horrifying plot when she accidentally overheard a phone conversation between her mother and her brother.
Det Supt Caroline Goode, who led the investigation into her murder, said: “A council of war was held at Ari Mahmod’s house where the decision was made that Banaz and Rahmat would both be killed. Ari Mahmod rang Banaz’s mother and her that that was going to happen. In his words ‘they are bringing shame on the family and that b**** and that b****** are going to die’.”
Terrified, Banaz wrote a letter to police, telling them about the threats to kill her and her boyfriend, and delivered it to Wimbledon Police Station on December 12. She wrote: “Numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 said they are ready and willing to do the job of killing me and my boyfriend.”
Just over two weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, police were called to a cafe in Wimbledon where Banaz was making claims her father had tried to kill her. She was drunk after her father had taken her to her grandmother’s home, where he had plied her with brandy poured into a glass he would only touch while wearing gloves.
He ordered his daughter not to look at him and a frantic Banaz smashed a window, badly hurting her hands, to flee the house. She was taken to hospital, where Ramhat filmed a chilling video of her detailing to plot against both of them as she lay in bed. However, an investigating officer did not believe her version of events.
Meanwhile, Banaz had nowhere to go and when her family arranged to meet her at a McDonald’s, she believed her father when he told her he was sorry and shouldn’t have listened to her brother.
Two days before Banaz’s death, Rahmat was kidnapped and told that both he and his girlfriend were going to be killed. Seeking help in what would be there final time, Banaz and Ramhat went to the police station to report the threats and were due to return to following day to make a statement. Banaz never arrived.
On the morning of January 24, 2006, Banaz was subjected to two-and-a-half hours of suffering inside her own home including degrading acts of sexual violence by her cousins Mohamad Hama, Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussain.
It was while he was being held in a cell that Hama made a phone call that would lead to her killers’ downfall.
Det Supt Goode said: “He was callously describing the murder to a relative and they were congratulating themselves on how manly they were. And they described that murder in the most gruesome of terms.
“They had raped Banaz, she was vomiting she was so afraid. They had wrapped a cord three times around her neck so tightly that it was biting into her flesh.
“He described having his feet on her back and pulling and pulling on that cord. Can you imagine the horror of that situation? It took more than half an hour for her to die.”
But police had still not recovered Banaz’s body. Mobile records from two of her family members finally led them the house in the West Midlands. Hama had asked a friend in a phone call if a “freezer had been put back over her body” and officers knew where to dig.
On April 28, 2006, Banaz’s body was found. It was so badly decomposed no DNA samples could be taken. The following June, Mahmod Babakir Mahmod was found guilty of her murder and jailed for 20 years while her uncle, Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, was also convicted of killing her and sentenced for 23 years.
Mohamad Marid Hama, one of the men who killed Banaz after subjecting her to hours of torture and rape, was also found guilty of her murder and ordered to serve 17 years in prison.
At both trials, brave Rahmat gave evidence against his girlfriend’s killers and had to be placed under police protection and assume a new identity. However, Rahmat could not move on from Banaz’s murder and the hole in his life that it left. He said: “My life went away when Banaz died. There is no life. The only thing which was keeping me going was the moment to see justice being done for Banaz.” Rahmat took his own life in 2016.
DCI Caroline Goode recalled: “In this case the family had no interest whatsoever in the investigation. It was an absolute outrage that this girl was missing and nobody cared.” Speaking to MailOnline, she added: “The case was unusual because normally when you investigate a murder you are trying to get justice for the family. But in this instance, the family weren’t interested in getting justice as they were the ones who ordered her killing.”
