Murder of Rukhsana Naz

Rukhsana had a long-standing relationship with a fellow pupil from her school days, Imran Najib; the Naz family considered him to be "socially inferior" Back in Derby, Rukhsana engaged in an affair with Imran who, by this stage, was also married; in late 1997 she fell pregnant with his child. She moved out of the family home, sharing a house with her sister Safina and brother-in-law, and hoped to have her baby, divorce Sajid and live with Imran. When Shakeela Naz discovered that her daughter was expecting a child from an adulterous relationship she tried to force her into terminating her pregnancy, but Rukhsana refused. Shakeela kicked her daughter in the stomach and urged her to take a large quantity of paracetamol to try to bring about a miscarriage. It was customary for the Naz family to get together for a family meal every week but, on 26 March 1998, Rukhsana called to say that she was unwell and wouldn't be attending. Her sister Safina claimed that Shakeela had dissuaded Rukhsana from attending due to concerns about other family members discovering her daughter's pregnancy, which had now started to show. Safina further stated that, at around 7:00p.m., Shakeela suddenly claimed that she needed to visit someone in the hospital; she left the house with her two sons, returning alone just over an hour later. Safina and her husband returned to their home at around 10:30p.m. and, finding that Rukhsana wasn't there, phoned Shakeela, who told her not to worry and to "go to sleep"; Safina reported Rukhsana as missing, but withdrew the report after Iftikhar said it would "bring shame on the family". ==Murder==

Shakeela Naz had approached her doctor about arranging an abortion for Rukhsana; she was advised that the pregnancy was too advanced, Her remains were found on 31 March 1998, less than 2 weeks from her 20th birthday. Iftikhar Naz Iftikhar Naz initially claimed to have been at the home of his girlfriend, Louise, during the timeframe that Rukhsana went missing; Louise duly provided him with an alibi. Maintaining he knew nothing about his sister's whereabouts, he noted that she'd been threatened by Imran Najib's father. He also told Louise that he feared she'd been kidnapped. Days later, Louise withdrew her support for the false alibi and alleged that Iftikhar had told her that he, his mother and brother had killed Rukhsana. ==Legal proceedings==

Shakeela, Shazad and Iftikhar Naz stood trial at Nottingham Crown Court in May 1999, the trial lasted for two and a half weeks. Shazad Naz's partial defence of provocation, on the basis of religious and cultural beliefs, was rejected In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Tucker stated: Shakeela Naz appealed against her conviction, which was dismissed on 23 March 2000. In 2007 Shakeela also appealed against the minimum term set for her life sentence, which was also rejected and it was reaffirmed that she would serve a minimum term of 14 years. When handing down his judgement, Mr Justice Grigson noted that the trial judge had recommended a minimum term of 17 years and that this had already been reduced by the Lord Chief Justice "expressly on the basis that her cultural background mitigated the criminality of her act". He further stated: ==See also==