- Younger sister Alesha broke down in tears as she described the moment Shafilea was allegedly killed for being 'westernised'
- Shafilea's eyes were 'really wide... You could tell she was gasping for air', Alesha said
- Jury hears victim 'wet herself because she was struggling so much'
- Shafilea lost 5st after drinking bleach in fear she was going to be left in Pakistan by her family
- She went to the bathroom 'and a few minutes later everybody heard a scream,' Alesha said
- Shafilea argued with mother after she was seen out of the house without wearing a shawl, court told
- Parents Iftikhar and Farzana deny murdering their daughter in 2003
By James Tozer
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'Murdered': The sister of Shafilea Ahmed (pictured) broke down in tears today as she described the moment she witnessed her parents allegedly killing her sister
The mother of a girl allegedly murdered for defying her strict Muslim parents began the fatal attack with the words 'Just finish it here', a court heard yesterday.
As Shafilea Ahmed's younger brother and sisters watched, an argument which began over the 17-year-old wearing a skimpy T-shirt ended with her parents pushing a plastic bag in her mouth and suffocating her on the settee, the jury was told.
Her younger sister Alesha, then just 15, said she saw Shafilea's eyes bulging as she gasped for breath and kicked out while Iftikhar Ahmed and his wife Farzana held their hands over her face.
She told the jury that after the couple pushed Shafilea's limp body on to the floor, her father punched the teenager once in the chest at the family home in Warrington.
That evening, she said, their 13-year-old brother Junyade told his surviving sisters: 'She deserved it.'
Shafilea's remains were found on a riverbank in Cumbria five months later. But it was not until 2010 that Alesha – now 23 – came forward to give her account of the killing.
Giving evidence from behind a screen at Chester Crown Court for a second day, Alesha said her sister wanted to continue in the sixth form of her secondary school to further her ambition of becoming a lawyer.
However her parents objected because of the westernised lifestyle she and her friends there had led, so she went to a nearby college instead. Shafilea also got a part-time telesales job after lessons, the court heard, and would be picked up by one of her parents every evening.
On September 11, 2003, said Alesha, she accompanied her mother to bring Shafilea home. The 17-year-old was wearing a lilac V-neck T-shirt and white trousers made from stretchy material with ties at the hips, while she was carrying a cardigan.
Asked about their mother's reaction by prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, she answered: 'She wasn't happy about her being in just a T-shirt.' When they got home, Mrs Ahmed spoke to her taxi driver husband, and the argument about 'her not wearing her jumper' continued in the living room, she added.
Accused of murder: Shafelia's mother Farzana Ahmed, left, and Iftikhar Ahmed, right, at Chester Crown Court
The mother then passed Shafilea's bags to her son to search for money and boys' numbers, which was normal practice.
After he found cash including a £20 note, the argument escalated, Alesha added, as the siblings plus their two younger sisters – aged 12 and seven – looked on.
Then, she told the jury: 'My mum said "Just finish it here" to my dad.' She said her mother had spoken the words in Urdu.
Alesha said her mother then pushed Shafilea on to the settee before both parents started hitting her and one said: 'Grab a bag.'
Family home: The Ahmeds lived in this house in Warrington, Cheshire
Sobbing and taking long pauses, she continued: 'They put it in her mouth and put their hands over her.' As her mother dabbed at her eyes in the dock, Alesha told the jury her father had held Shafilea down as she kicked out desperately.
Alesha said her sister's eyes were 'just open, really wide' and 'you could tell she was just gasping for air'. Finally, she said, Shafilea stopped struggling: 'That was it – she was gone.' But she added: 'They carried on with their hands still on her mouth, even when she had stopped struggling.'
Her father pulled Shafilea's body off the settee 'and straight after that he just punched her in the chest for no reason, just once'.
On trial: Iftikhar Ahmed, left, and Farzana Ahmed, right, are said to have killed their 17-year-old daughter because she refused to obey them
Alesha said she went upstairs to the bedroom the sisters shared before sneaking back down and seeing her mother in the kitchen, sorting through old 'flowery' sheets, bin bags and rolls of tape.
Later, through the curtains, she glimpsed her father carrying a dark package up the driveway with his arms outstretched, 'like a cradle', she said. 'The way he was carrying it, it just looked like it was my sister.'
Tragic: Shafilea had been a keen student at her school in Warrington, Cheshire, and enjoyed trips to shopping centres and wearing Western clothes
Shortly afterwards, she heard a car leaving. She said the siblings were all crying and upset – apart from Junyade. 'My brother said to me and my sisters that she deserved it.'
Alesha said she was told to say Shafilea had run away from home.
The next day, however, she 'blurted out' to three friends that her father had killed her sister and chopped up her body, but begged them to keep it secret.
After school, for the first time ever, she changed into clothes belonging to Shafilea and went with friends to a park, drinking cider and alcopops, she said.
But rumours were already swirling around that Shafilea had been 'chopped up' and 'buried in the family's back garden', so she returned home.
Shafilea was reported missing after teachers heard the rumours but, when questioned by police, Alesha denied saying she had been killed.
Asked by Mr Edis what she thought would happen to her if she had repeated her account to police, she answered: 'The same thing that happened to my sister.'
She said her parents warned their children to 'be careful' of what they said inside the house in case listening devices had been planted by police.
It was only in 2010 after Alesha was arrested over a robbery at the family home during which her mother, surviving sisters and brother were tied up that she told police she had seen Shafilea's killing.
Mr Edis has told the court Alesha admits her role in the robbery and has been given no 'inducements' to give evidence against her parents.
Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his 49-year-old wife deny murder.
The case continues.
JURY IS TOLD HOW SHE DRANK BLEACH IN DESPAIR
A desperate Shafilea swallowed bleach during a trip to Pakistan after her mother told her she was to stay there permanently, her sister said.
Alesha said Shafilea – then 16 – went straight to the bathroom, then moments later 'everyone just heard her screaming and she was holding her stomach'.
Next to her was an industrial-sized bottle of bleach with the lid off.
The incident, in March 2003 during a power cut at her grandparents' house in rural Pakistan, badly damaged Shafilea's throat.
Their grandmother said she needed to go to hospital, but the girls' mother reacted differently, Alesha told the jury. 'I'm sure she said she was okay when it was very clear she wasn't,' she said.
In hospital, Alesha said, her mother told Shafilea to say it was a mistake and she was 'supposed to drink mouthwash but because it was dark she drank bleach instead'.
The prosecution say Shafilea had been drugged and put on a one-way flight to Pakistan after trying to cut her ties with her parents.
While she was in the village where both her parents were born, several local families proposed that Shafilea should marry their sons, said Alesha, giving her photographs of men with moustaches and oiled hair. 'She was just not interested at all.'
After the bleach incident, Shafilea returned to England for hospital treatment. She lost more than two stone because she could not swallow food.
One side effect was that she needed saliva to be wiped from her face regularly when her family visited her, said Alesha. 'Mum just made a face about not wanting to wipe it up', so one of the sisters or their father did it instead.
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