Murdered By My Family | Banaz: An Honour Killing (Crime Documentary) | Real Stories

she was a very calm and quiet person she loved to see people happy she did not like arguments she just wanted a happy life she wanted you know a family Banas Mahmoud was murdered by her own family because they said she brought them dishonor they killed her there just just for for being in love sometimes I am thinking why Bluff should be so hated she told the police she was going to be killed people following me they follow me and that was the main reason I came to the police station but they let her down this is her story told for the first time in her own words in the future or any time if anything happens to me is them killed by us you're innocent then we open ours who killed when as if she was in my life my life would be orange and yellow [Music] my name is dia Han this film has taken me four years to make I grew up in the same kind of community as well as I wanted to tell her story because I know the precious women like her face and the threat of violence if they step out of line but this is also the story of Caroline good the detective who was determined that Bernard should have justice she says Banaszak family tried to wipe out her memory along with her life I've never seen a photograph in that house I've been ants I guess they don't want to remember my take on that was that they simply wanted to erase her from the earth and there to be no trace of her Caroline and I share a belief we should remember burn us because there are many more women who are suffering now just as she suffered [Music] Banas was kurdish and was born in northern iraq when she was young the family came to Britain as refugees from Saddam Hussein she was just an ordinary kid growing up in South London she had a nickname Nazca means softness like bellacor you know like a newborn lamb the cull is her older sister she wears a veil not because she wants to but because she has to she is living in hiding because she testified against her own family she had long eyelashes hazel eyes she had Apple cheekbones she was beautiful I mean you could look at her forever the men of Manasses family held traditional cultural beliefs that their honor and their status in the community depend on their control of the women when Alice's father is Mahmoud Mahmoud he is the eldest of the brothers there are quite a few mark my brothers living in London and re as a younger brother it was Adi he had all the power over the family because he was a very wealthy man but as the sister Bacall was the first to rebel against the family strict codes but she soon ran into trouble with her father I wasn't allowed to have my nails long I wasn't enough to pluck my eyebrows you know perfume I was getting a lot of beams I have to say use a lot of nasty beatings you know I lived her when I was just under 16 in the community Bacall grew up in a daughter leaving home can bring shame on the family it's about your reputation it's literally about your face how you are perceived by others if they have a woman that doesn't conform then that is gonna impact upon them because their behavior reflects not upon themselves but upon everyone around them upon the whole collective the whole family the whole community in 2002 they can't says they tried to remove the dishonor of her leaving home she says her brother asked to meet her he lured her to a remote location and he got her to carry a suitcase walk along that path in front of me don't turn around don't look at what I'm doing he just hit me over the head of a dumb though a single odd way he put his arm round my neck lifting me off my feet almost no me panicking I started trying to get myself free from him I bit his arm in that bend of his arm I kicked him kicked on his knee and he let go of me I said to him look look what you're doing you actually tried to kill me but I'm saying it's screaming out to him and he stopped for him and he started crying like a woman you know really really crying and he said I'm really sorry but um I'm the big boy I'm the big man after my dad I have to do this for a shame to an end that is that is exactly his words actually and he told me that my dad actually paid him to do this to me the car did not press charges and went into hiding so all of this was going on in the in the background before Banares and what happened to her [Music] in 2003 at the age of 17 Banas was married it was an arranged marriage to a man that she'd only ever met on one previous occasion he was 10 years older than burn as he was illiterate and he was literally just off the plane from from Iraq her husband took her to live in Coventry two years later in 2005 she left him and returned to the family home in London in October of that year she went to a police station in Croydon to make a statement about the way her husband had treated her because it happened in Coventry she was interviewed by officers from the West Midlands Police this video has never been seen on television before so describe your relationship meant for me from the very early stages through to when things started to go wrong for you well he was just like he was thinking like in 15 years back he was the strict husband whenever he wanted her to have sex that it was just his way always his way like whenever I said no or he wouldn't take no for an outside and he would just start breaking in and doing what he liked to if I tried to stop him but he would slap me or hit me on the back or just pull me by him I just start to like come on my body like hold on like that they say that's when he said to me he'd kill me if I said anything to anyone I was just 17 some of the times there was the delivery room they hearing me or individual I didn't know if this was no more in my culture or in here I was only 17 so I just let him do what he liked whenever he raped me it was like I was he shooed and he would wearing just one of you but he felt like it he made me believe that my family loved him more than they love me and if I ever told anyone that he would kill me all day I've got no family around me and they're far far away for me so he could do anything for me as he liked I didn't try to have anyone defend myself or anything here I just cried I went to visit her and I did say to her said you know you look rundown and she said yeah I'm enjoying my life I'm doing exactly what he tells me to do he was you know physically verbally emotionally and every other way you can think of abusing her degrading how you know all you're good for is doing you know being a housewife you're no good for nothing else so he was getting worse there was some of the times that he had doing me up or he was abusive towards me I had to write it down in a diary mm-hmm and I have taken some pictures of my body at like when he's being marked the bruises and stuff like that their clothes that he's ripped off knew back then he had got hold of them and he knew that I wrote it down in a diary so he destroyed them all but I have got him one one set of photos and because he hates me so much alike in the head my lips were bleeding my ears and he had like twisted my hand pretty strongly that so one of the bones it has like stand out from my wrist when he kicked my head in that really affected me like now I've got loss of memory I kind of wonder things and most of times when I'm kidding quite as you please that's only one example out many many occasions when he was either physically or sexually abusive towards her so that and has kept a secret from her family while she was trying to be a good wife to her husband but eventually one of her sisters found out and through that sister the rest of the family were made aware and he admitted the yadu beat your daughter but it's cause she's disrespectful and I do force her to have sex but you know only when she says no so that is something the family found acceptable and sent her back to try harder to be a better wife to her husband I left him several times I went back to my parents but because for a Muslim female like me it's very hard to get a divorce and after one final incident she left him I was really shutting down there's nothing just like brushes on things and I love to I think that was the last argument that we had she just had enough but of course leaving her husband in my culture is not allowed it's the worst institutional woman [Music] after leaving her husband Bernard put herself in even greater danger because she met Robert a man her family did not approve of [Music] I think Bella's suddenly found a lot of freedom and a lot of joy and a lot of pleasure in meeting ramit originally there this was just a friendship they started to see each other and it developed into a full-blown relationship [Music] rabbit is he's a lovely guy me that plan to have kids they had names they had plans for everything yet the police recovered dozens of texts between Banas and Roberts she contacted him every morning and every night just before bed they kept their relationship secret because they knew the community was watching women from communities that how this honor ethos are kind of they're under a form of constant surveillance it's the eyes of the community it's the young man of the community that are looking for them that are keeping an eye out for any behavior that's untoward and that they're feeding us back feeding us back constantly into the family and it's this kind of constant surveillance that women get used to after bananas left her husband she was worried that men were following her in the streets I've seen him and even now I mean one guy as soon as I came out of the house he was following me my name in my language Sartre Android and he told me that he should give me a lift and I should go into his car and I said no and just put my head down and keep walking so dad that you were just following me people following me oh it's turned out they follow me and that was the main reason that I came to the police station okay don't in the future or anytime if anything happens to me it's them if ever you're worried or afraid for your own safety you must contact us straight away all right I don't need you worrying you know we can get somebody out if that's been just an elation you know for your own peace of mind no I'm giving this statement what can you do for me you've given us lines of inquiry that we wanted to follow up okay you know what's going on I think it's happening really just so that you kept informed and up-to-date as to what's going on okay by going to the police Banas was putting herself at great risk but the investigating officers did nothing to investigate her claims full track her husband down it took them three months just to write up a statement for her to sign this was one of at least five occasions when banas went to the police over the threats she was facing people following me follow me they missed all the signs that she was in great danger you know I'm giving this family what can you do for me [Music] two months after she went to the police Banas and rama were spotted by members of the local community here outside warden tube station [Music] mr. afraid of shops Bananarama was seen kissing each other it was outside the tube station which is just down the road here very quick to put a phone call into the head of the family guess what I've seen your knees doing that was what triggered the whole thing and following that there was what I would term a council of war that's the home of airing that were to which the men of the extended family were invited and a decision was made there and then it was being orchestrated by the uncle who was a stronger character than Boehner's his father and uncle in turn had said to the younger members of the community but I want you to do is to kill Dennis we're talking about organized crime men sitting around a table who decided that she must die that's how conspiratorial it was that's how deep it was [Music] two days after this family meeting Banas went to her local police station and made another statement she said she'd heard her uncle saying she was going to be killed and a week later she delivered a letter to the police identifying five family members she said we're going to murder her she said she didn't want the police to take action so they did not investigate any further it might be hard to understand why banas protected her family but in researching honor killings I've found many young people who are in great danger don't want to get their family in trouble [Music] a few weeks after she handed the letter to the police her father asked her to come to a relative's house for a meeting on New Year's Eve benna's was tricked her father said you are required to come to discuss the question of your divorce he then got her to carry in a suitcase in into the house it also brought some brandy and he virtually forced his daughter to drink brandy obviously in the hope of stupefying her he told her to sit on on on sofa look at the television don't turn around don't look at what I am doing and she did turn around and look at her father and she caught him coming up on her wearing rubber gloves training shoes and she became aware in that instant that she was going to be killed she knew that she was going to be killed but her father left the room again it gave banas a chance to get away she managed to escape from the back of the house and she plunged her hands through the next-door neighbor's window to try get attention she climbed over a fence staggered off up the road bare feet bleeding from irons and wrists and collapsed on the floor of a nearby cafe hospital staff that dealt with him on that night said they've never seen anyone so frightened in their life ramit was contacted and ranat had the presence of mind whilst Banias was lying on the hospital trolley asked Ben to tell him exactly what had happened at the same time he was recording on his mobile again vanassa told her story to the police there was a woman police officer who disbelieved her completely and she said I believed it was just a girl who drunk too much talk she was gonna be in trouble and therefore was making up this story the police officer even considered charging Banias with criminal damage for breaking the window during her escape in france's case there were almost a landslide of mistakes flowing from a lack of understanding no lack of awareness some poor police Inc which we all read knows now afterburners came out of hospital she went and stayed with Robert Fermi briefly was then persuaded by our family to come and meet them at that McDonald's to think to persuade her to come home and as I had said something along the lines of you know if I run away I'm dead if I go home I'm dead you know so that sense of absolute futility which goes some way to explaining her decision to go home [Applause] [Music] this is one of the last texts when are sent to Rama [Music] the next morning she disappeared [Music] her family claims she brought them dishonor for loving a man they did not approve of just for being in love sometimes I am thinking why laugh should be so hated she told the police her life was in danger but they didn't help her her family had already tried to kill her once but she decided to return home in January 2006 banaz was reported missing by her boyfriend just starting his head of a Scotland Yard homicide team was Caroline good I was on call it was my first week in charge of that team and I had a phone call from a local detective inspector who was worried about one of his missing persons my job really was the I was the Intel sergeant so my job was there with all the intelligence that we gathered I was part of team 16 now for a lewisham and I became the case officer elope I was one of the detective sergeants not a single member of the Kurdish community helped us it didn't get any positive contribution from the community and there must have been dozens if not hundreds of people that knew what had happened to banaz we encountered quite wide scale I'm attempts and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice young men who made false statements people saying that she was alive when when in fact she wasn't there was lots of work that went on and lots of red hairs lots of things where we were looking at things and it would take us a week to eliminate that under the inquiry in involving themselves in it that's enhancing their own image within the community there are over 50 people involved it's up to some degree or another in that murder when we found out within a couple of days of the investigation that burners had an older sister called Becca who was estranged from the family she wasn't living at the family home I had police knocking on my door asking if they could come in and they said to me it's about your sister your sisters gone missing so when they said to me she's gone missing and my family don't know I knew that wasn't true I knew that was not true because I knew I just knew in my heart that you know it's to do with the family members the men I knew it in early March someone from the Kurdish community had found Bacall and she had had a phone call to say that she was going to be the next person to be killed the risk to her was obviously phenomenal we knew that people had traced her telephone people knew roughly what area that she was living in and we actually you moved her from house to house to house at one point trying to keep her her safe to stop to stop people finding her [Music] [Music] the police were now throwing all their resources at the case but the clue to what had happened to Banaras was already in their hands and he came from bananas herself this is a letter that was delivered by the nose to the local police station owner around the 12th of December 2005 in it she is given details of people that she has heard we're going to be responsible for killing her numbers two three four and five have said that they're ready and willing to do the job of killing me and my boyfriend and this was said by my uncle Ari Mahmood while my uncle was on the phone to my mum on the second December at around 6:00 to 7:00 that evening he also said that he's going to kill me and my boyfriend Robert and it's signed by a nice man would know just childlike writing speaking literally from beyond the grave this is what's going to happen to me I'm from that letter we were able subsequently to identify some of the people that she was talking about and a letter was accurate in every detail of what she said about these men as omar hussein mohamed ali muhammad hammer when those three men are all cousins so there are cousins of Banaras and they are cousins of each other Mohammad Hama was arrested and was charged with her murder it was a race against time because we had charged Muhammad come on there is only a certain amount of time that you can keep someone in custody and we still haven't found the body we couldn't even prove that Bonanza was dead much less than Muhammad Hammond had been the one to kill her so the race was really off to find Vanessa's body and the manhood family was showing no interest in this investigation whatsoever they weren't bringing us up and said have you found my daughter yet or just absolutely no interest even when we were dragging the lake opposite their house you know no one came out or you know just no interest whatsoever it's just such an absolute outrage she was a completely innocent victim and I think those things hit home in you you always do things for the victim's family there's one thing we always yeah we always try to serve murders for the victim's family with this one we never tried to solve the murder for the victim's family which were to solve the murder for Bernays because you know that was that she didn't have anybody else her family had killed him two Muhammad's followed a really strange pattern of behavior in that their telephones was showing that they were coming back down to London chewing on frying between London and Birmingham Mohammed hammers car was a hire car the GPS or the equivalent in his car meant that there was a record of every place it had been and the police just sent up the helicopter to hover around the area where the cars had been parked we got some information about there being a freezer over their grave and Carolyn I was sitting there we've got this information she went we've seen that freezer for men oh yeah we're sitting there on a rack our brains and she suddenly went that's on the video where's the video so we looked at it and sure enough there's a freezer in this back garden that we see from the helicopter that I was up in so that was it we were like that's got to be there so Stuart and I got in the car literally drive up there that night once we were inside we'd submit us a forensic archaeologist who looks at the ground outside in the rear garden and immediately saw that there had been a disturbance in the earth towards the back of the house buried six feet down her body hidden in a suitcase dibbs fam bonus she was in a like a fetal position she was curled up like in a in a fetal position which it's somehow I don't know that's some health for me makes it even worth that fetal position represents in a child almost like a child in a womb being in that that that suitcase where and the whole tragedy for about this case for me is is about that child parent relationship that's gone horribly horribly wrong I had a knock on the door and he was my family years officer but she was speaking me and it's who I sit down and have a friend day with me and just tears just floated out I couldn't control myself I wanted to just be out of my skin just die it was you know they said to me that if I my sister buried in a suitcase and water pipes are broken wild they put her down there so it was quite severe the situation it was quite horrible just shattered me just shut up me into pieces not long after then my family knows officer she brought me pictures pictures of my sister worse do not ever go food for me in my life seeing my own sister turning to ashes like that that would days enough to turn someone mad three men were charged with her murder including her father and uncle two other suspects had gone on the run and fled to Iraq in court vanassa's sister testified against her family I have the massive maximum respect for Becca for having the courage to give evidence against her family knowing that your family would have you killed for doing it vanassa's boyfriend Rawat also gave evidence he is still in hiding and was unable to appear in this program we know now banaz was murdered on the morning of the 24th of January and from piecing together all of the evidence the suspects met at Mohammed hammers address and they made their way to Ben as his home quite deliberately her father and her mother left the family home leaving banners on the premises with one of her sisters and that meant the coast was clear for the men to come in it was bananas habit to sleep on the living room floor there wasn't a bedroom for her there wasn't sufficient room in the house so she would sleep on the living room floor and those three men Muhammad Ali Mohammed hammer and omar hussein came into the house woken up to find three men bursting into your room and knowing at that point you're going to be killed the police had secretly recorded Muhammad Houma he was taped talking about what happened that morning he was boasting blatantly boasting about what those men had done to burn hours of that morning and then laughing the flak on each other on the back you know being manly they were slapping her [ __ ] her I have [ __ ] her a new leaf the bitch's soul was not getting discharged with anything it took more than half an hour was upstairs as well I was aware I swear to God I didn't know she was there [ __ ] her arey the bastard lied to us ari said there was no one there will I put my leg there on her back Mohammed on neck he made the cord like a hook I held her hand and said put it around quickly and when she heard that she was terrified he immediately put the cord around her neck she was vomiting well he put the wire around her neck and gave it to me then I was holding to the cord so tight and stamping on her neck as well when I stamped on the back of her neck her mouth and nose were on the floor and that was in the suitcase I was saying let her soul be discharged I was kicking her head the soul would not discharge that easily the wire around her neck it went deep through the skin her soul was not getting discharged because he was able to tighten it further he tightened it around her neck and it didn't take more than 4 to 5 minutes her soul was discharged and she didn't make a sound you you while making this film I came face-to-face with bonanzas father and uncle at a police station you don't want to tell your side of the story I'm sorry who killed boners will you not agree to give us your side of the story I'm doing a documentary about your case and I'm wondering if you're on a fake who killed banas you're innocent then who killed vanna's no I'm saying you did not know by 2007 three men were behind bars but the job was not done two cousins of banas suspected of killing her had fled to Europe no one had ever been extradited to the UK from Iraq before but the team was not going to give up now you know what paranoid psych she doesn't stop nobody get away with murder banaz was was part of us and he'd just drove us on omar hussein in mohammed ali had fled the UK before I was even aware that banaz had been murdered two other people who were actually two other people physically present who kills her and disposed of her body and to think that they had gone off to Iraq and getting reports back from people saying that they were boasting about their actions in the café's their thing you're not going to get away with that you're just not going to get away with that no one could get away with murder not when we know who they are let's push the boundary Singh has never been done that's getting back from Iraq well how we're gonna do that tonight omar hussein was virtually beyond the reaches of the law there because his family are so powerful he was being hailed with his brother his brother was quite a senior police officer over there and our information was that he was being sheltered I think over there a lot of people felt that they hadn't done anything wrong they believed that because she brought dishonor then she should be killed eventually it transpired that he had an argument with both of his brothers and that brother shot him in the leg with an ak-47 and he was arrested once he was at hospital the second suspect Muhammad Ali was involved in a car crash and was arrested by the Iraqi police the team traveled to Iraq to get the courts to extradite the two men and it took three years but got it done in the end we did follow them to the ends of the earth really you know what Caroline's like she doesn't stop so [Music] in the last four months of her life panas went to the police at least five times after her death the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched an inquiry into police misconduct it criticized nine police officers six from the Metropolitan Police and three from the West Midlands for not doing enough to help her the Metropolitan Police told us we have learned a great deal since the banaz case we have developed working arrangements to ensure effective and professional standards of investigation and support all London boroughs have a dedicated Community Safety Unit awareness training on honour based violence is also delivered we are resolute in our determination to keep victims and potential victims safe the West Midlands Police told us a range of measures have been put in place which include a policy for the investigation of rape and serious sexual assaults the introduction of specialist teams enhance training in respect of honour based violence and closer working with partners and the public we will continually review policies and procedures to ensure the safety of victims is paramount some people argue that the subject of honour killing should not be tackled for fear of stigmatizing entire communities there are plenty of people around the country who tell me that they are actually wary of stepping into this minefield because they see it as a minefield at the moment that they start talking about this issue locally they will be branded racists the fact is it's been going on for centuries across cultures across religions all over the world any idea that you can't speak about criminal offences because they take place in a part of the community which is the minority is appalling I find that quite offensive as a member if you like of a minority community I think it's much better for everybody if these things are brought into the open and discussed there are many people within the Kurdish community who are post - honor killings and some who bravely speak out I have to say that the majority of the community are against that kind of violence but this small minority they had lots of power over the whole community to keep quiet keep silence not saying anything because then they will tell them you betray Kurdish community we are not destroying them we are defending the rights of people the rights of women we are the true Kurdish people according to official statistics there is one honor killing every four weeks in Britain but the Crown Prosecution Service admits the real figures are probably much higher in the early kingdom we have 12 holidays a year there are there abouts but we don't even know that that's I think to my mind under estimate because generally when a Charles goes missing who is it that reports the child gone missing the family but if the family of the reason why the child has gone missing you're not gonna get report you're not gonna know that child is missing we have no idea what we do have is a significant underestimate Pinellas family have never commented on this case before but they contacted us to say Bernards was a lovely caring smart and kind girl who loved her family and her family loved her we miss her very much we did everything to support her in her marriage and when she decided to leave him we supported her our children are not oppressed and they never have been it is not true that the family have tried to erase the memory of burn as it's the family that tends her grave they say it was the police who let her down not them and they did cooperate with the murder inquiry they say that burn as assistive akahl was never beaten or in any danger they say she was not attacked by her brother [Music] [Music] I go and visit banaz it's great from time to time but I'm not sure how many other people actually do that but I'm not sure if anyone else would ever be able to find it because that grave was left unmarked for years after the trial right it's around here somewhere well that's that is new that is absolutely new that marker I'm pleased but that's on there that's good I think BEC I'll told me when I saw the last time that she'd planted some lily bulbs in there which were sisters favorite flowers that's really nice bit early for them to be coming up yeah but be nice when they come out I feel like my life even always be danger safety is something I dream of yeah something that I really really am longing for what in my circumstances that I think that's going to happen anytime soon I'm only doing this in the name of my sister Mia for my sister and you know she will always live on in my heart in my life I certainly felt that we had become surrogate parents because we didn't feel that she was loved by her own their own parents that we we took over that parenting parenting role and that doesn't mean that we were too close to the investigation it just meant that we were showing her love and respect and that that someone someone should love her someone should care so we did we still do you

Channel: undefined

Views: 3,013,223

Rating: 4.7783828 out of 5

Keywords: Banaz, Real Stories Documentary, Honour Killings, Documentaries, Documentary Movies - Topic, Islam, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary, Full length Documentaries, tlc, Real Stories, transgender documentary, Channel 4, Family, Crime, ITV, Police, Topic, PBS, Full Documentary, timeline, only human, Amazing Documentaries, Movies, Real Stories Full Documentary, Family Codes, Family Bonds, UK, real stories crime, Muhammad, Mohammed, Salah, Hajj, Umrah, Madrasa, Muslima, An-Nisa, Aisha, Talaq, Khadija, Abaya

Id: Qn-VhFHkUoY

Length: 47min 25sec (2845 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 04 2018