Shafilea Ahmed's Sister Mevish Ahmed Denies Being Beaten By Parents

I Was Not Beaten, Shafilea's Sister Tells Court

Shafilea Ahmed's sister has denied telling a friend she was beaten by her parents and they threatened to kill her.

Mevish Ahmed also denied telling Shahin Munir she should "give police her diaries" if anything happened to her.

Mevish Ahmed, 21, was giving evidence for a second day in the trial of parents Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana, 49, who are accused of murdering 17-year-old Shafilea at home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, told the jury about an incident in April 2009 when she was arrested on suspicion of stealing money from the family home.

Mevish Ahmed on Tuesday

He said: "You spoke to Shahin and told her that afterwards you were beaten by your mother and your father, thrown on the floor and they said that you should go to Pakistan right now and talked about finishing you and threatened to kill you."

Mevish Ahmed said: "No, I fell outside the house."

The prosecution claims that Mevish Ahmed had fallen out with her parents but "returned to the family" after they promised to withdraw the theft allegation.

Mr Edis said: "You had been arrested and investigated for the theft of £600 from your own house and you said (to Miss Munir), 'I'm going back home, if anything happens to me give police the diary'."

Mevish Ahmed replied: "I don't recall that at all."

On Monday, Chester Crown Court heard extracts of writings made by Mevish Ahmed and given to Munir which appeared to corroborate statements her sister Alesha earlier made to the jury about Shafilea's treatment by her parents and the night of her death.

Mevish Ahmed described the documents as "free writing" and said they were all pieces of "fiction".

Mr Edis suggested to Mevish Ahmed that in the run up to the trial and after it began she tried to get Miss Munir to hand over her diary and the documents.

He told the jury that last week Munir's mobile phone received a large number of silent calls. He said: "Would you like to tell the jury why you made an awful lot of silent calls using a phone you don't usually use?"

Mevish Ahmed said it was a joke and added: "She's done it to me."

The jury also heard Mevish Ahmed made efforts to visit Munir recently but she said that was to "get money back" which was owed to her.

Mr Edis responded: "You were attempting to intimidate a witness."

Mevish Ahmed said: "No, I wasn't."

The barrister suggested Miss Munir was fond of Mevish Ahmed and the witness replied that she "didn't know" the answer.

"Does she love you?," he asked.

"She might have said she does, it's a bit creepy," Mevish Ahmed replied.

"I don't love her certainly, I'm not gay."

Mr Edis said: "Might you have used that emotion she felt when you needed it?"

Mevish Ahmed said she had not.

The barrister went on: "This was in 2009. At that time you made the disclosures and since then you have done everything at your disposal to get her to shut up."

Miss Ahmed said: "No, that's not true."

Earlier in the trial, older sister Alesha Ahmed described how the parents pushed Shafilea on to the settee in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" in Urdu as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

The couple, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, deny murder.

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