Wednesday, June 28, 2006

No Slap on the Wrist

UPDATE: Rune has given us the actual sentences meted out:

The sentencing is just in. According to preliminary reports, the murdered girl’s father received life in prison for the killing of his daughter. The brother and two uncles were sentenced to 16 years. The aunt and a cousin got 14 years. The remaining three got between 8 and 10 years.

While this is much less than one could wish for, it must be said that in a Danish context, these are very severe sentences indeed. I don’t remember a single case at all wherein the convicted persons received such long sentences, or where such a large number were sentenced. A few days ago I would have though between 8-12 for the killer, somewhat less for the father and less than 4 years for the rest. So this is definitely, for me, a positive result. Though apparently only three will be expelled from Denmark after their prison time (the rest have Danish citizenship). There have been suggestions in the parliament that serious crimes should automatically result in a stripping of citizenship. I think that is a route we now should pursue.


Ghazala KhanI reported yesterday on the Danish trial conviction of nine family members and friends for the “honor killing” of Ghazala Khan last September. There was some apprehension that the perpetrators would receive light sentences as sop to political correctness, but that does not seem to be the case.

According to a translation made by commenter Rune:

No reduced sentence

Eight of the nine will receive a minimum of five years prison time for the “honour” killing on Ghazala Khan. One may possibly receive a lesser sentence.

That was the verdict of the jury this evening. The penalty range goes from five years to life in prison.

One of the convicted persons — a 30 year old man, whom was employed as a taxi driver by the family — is the only one who could possibily get a sentence of less than five years, decided the jury. But he also can receive a sentence of greater than five years.

Prior to the sentencing, Rune had offered these observations on the situation in Denmark:

Perhaps the positive in the case is not so much that the actual sentencing likely will be much less what we could wish for (I’d guess less than 4 for all but the brother and the father), but that, for the first time, the whole network behind the killing has been unravelled and convicted. Likely it will set a precedent throughout Europe, whereby not only those who do the actual killing can be convicted — but also all the those who support the killing. Reportedly much of the immigrant community is in shock over the verdict. In a longer perspective it is expected the verdict will have a great preventive effect. But also that we in the future should be more aware that girls will be abducted to their homeland in the Middle East and murdered there.

What is nearly mind boggling is the massive support the killers have received from their community, even after the killing. Several of the jurors have received anonymous threats and have had some of their things vandalised. Immediately following the killing a group of unknown people visited several hospitals asking for the wounded husband of the murdered girl, supposedly to finish off the job. He had to witness in court heavily disguised and in a separate chamber — a thing that has also been witnessed in other similar cases with violence against women from the immigrant communities. Women’s shelters in particular have had many problems with family members of fled women who try to locate them and force them home. Most now have several policemen to protect them; they never order a taxi with an immigrant driver to transport women, always only have one women of each nationality at the shelter (since it was becoming common that a woman’s female relatives would enter the shelter and try to pressure the women to come back to the violent husband) etc.

There will always be maniacs. There have also been sad cases where children have been killed by their ethnic Danish fathers. But it’s the whole tacit or active support of the community that sickens me.

11 comments:

Exile said...

I wholeheartedly concur with Rune.
This was the best we could have hoped for, and perhaps, better than we expected.

Call this "one for the good guys".

I have a trilogy on my site with articles from the Copenhagen Post amongst others, if others are interested.

Zerosumgame said...

Do they have parole in Denmark?

If so, I assume these people will be out in much less time than the official sentences.

Baron Bodissey said...

Exile is too bashful to leave a link to his site, On the Wing.

The post is:

Trial and execution III. (Retribution).

Quote from the Copenhagen Post:

The verdict's significance was also outlined by Manu Sareen, an integration consultant in Copenhagen.

'This verdict will send shockwaves through all of Europe, and I'm sure that it will have a preventive effect,' said Sareen. 'Crimes such as 'honour killings' don't stop from one day to the next, but this is a clear signal.'

Zerosumgame said...

Nic fan,

By nature I am a pessimist. I am also deeply cynical about Europe.

Now, can you answer my question about parole in Denmark?

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Great stuff. Really cool. Denmark kicks ass ... AGAIN.

And now to watch the reaction :
1. Will the Euro-islamoids freak out and run amok again?
2. Will the rest of the Islamoids frak out and start riots/protests/boycotts against Denmark?
3. Will the other European countries with honor killing problems show some spine?
4. Will the lefty scum organizations like Amnesty International now go on a wail-a-thon?
5. Will the Euro lefty scum go on binge of worrying about the negative image of Muslims this case presents? Maybe more welfare would help? No? How about more TLC? Positive press? Education for the rest of society? More respect?
6. Is this righteous wave to grow and continue in Denmark, and is just running up to steam?

SUPPORT DENMARK!

X said...

I'm ashamed to say that, had these peole been sentenced in England, they would probably have received very light sentences in comparison to those just handed down. On the other hand we haven't really seen any prosecutions for "honour" murders yet, so it's all speculation. I would hope that the judiciary would ignore pressure from the BBC - which, I can guarantee, is where any pressure to reduce sentences would come from - and hand down an appropriate sentence, but considering the state of our government and law in the hands of the European harmonisers with their benighted human rights legislation, it's unlikely any case would ever see the inside of a court.

Now I predict that some lunatic lawyer will take a case to the European Court of Justice (an ironic name if ever tehre was) demanding that these people be released and Denmark punished for breaching Their human rights. It will happen, mark my words. How Denmark reacts to that is the next test.

Zerosumgame said...

Fellow Peacekeeper:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Not in Western Europe, no.
4. Yes
5. Yes. They think more (welfare , TLC, "education")will help, yes.
6. We'll soon find out.

Starling said...

I assume that the picture in the post was of the murdered girl. My god that was a beautiful girl. Not that a woman less beautiful is more deserving or one so beautiful one less, but dear lord what a tragedy to see such radiant beauty so brutally extinguished.

Baron Bodissey said...

Starling,

Yes, that's Ghazala Khan. It was the only picture of her I could find on the web, and it was very badly formatted. I extracted her image from it as best I could.

BTW, if you put your mouse pointer on our images & leave it for a moment, a little yellow box will pop up and provide the caption; in this case it's her name. Sometimes Dymphna and I put amusing little jokes in these captions, ones that only a few people notice...

The_Editrix said...

Denmark is, once again, leading when it comes to showing backbone.

Here is an overview of the situation in Germany.

But however we are trying to tackle the phenomenon of "honour killing", it will remain unsatisfactory. It is a crime of such monstrosity that our Western penal codes and legal systems are bound to fail. They are just not made for it.

a guy in pajamas said...

These sentences look pretty good, actually, assuming most of the time is actually served.

(Of course, the viking in me is calling for blood eagles all around ... *sigh* :-( Born a few centuries too late, I guess.)

Denmark gives me hope for Europe.