A Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled
by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing"
carried out at her
Banaz Mahmod,
20, was subjected to the 2-1/2 hour ordeal before she was garroted with a
bootlace. Her body was stuffed into a suitcase and taken about 100 miles to
Her badly decomposed body was found in April 2006, three
months after the killing.
Last month a jury found her father Mahmod
Mahmod, 52, and his brother Ari
Mahmod, 51, guilty of murder after a three-month
trial. Their associate Mohamad Hama,
30, had earlier admitted killing her.
On Thursday at a pre-sentence hearing for
Prosecutors said the three convicted men, along with two
other suspects who are still at large, had carried out the killing fearing that
the authorities were closing in on them.
They believed Banaz had brought
shame on the family by leaving her husband, an Iraqi Kurd she had been forced
to marry at 17, and falling in love with Rahmat Suleimani, an Iranian Kurd.
Her former unnamed partner had raped her as well as
repeatedly beating her, the court heard.
In the recordings, transcripts of which were relayed to the
court,
"I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul
out. I saw her stark naked, only wearing pants or underwear,"
His lawyers say there is no evidence to support the
prosecution's claims.
The decision to kill her came after a meeting on January 23
-- the day before she was murdered -- when the family decided to take action
before the police could foil their attempts, said prosecutor Victor Temple.
