A couple in Britain who killed their "westernised" teenage daughter because they believed she brought shame on the family were jailed for life today.
Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, were told that they would both serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.
The jury at Chester Crown Court convicted them of the murder of their 17-year-old daughter Shafilea.
The trial heard that they suffocated the teenager with a plastic bag at the family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.
Shafilea's father showed no emotion as he was sentenced but his wife sobbed loudly.
Trial judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans told them: "your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child."
The bravery of Shafilea Ahmed's younger sister was praised today as their parents were jailed for life.
Crying in the witness box, Alesha had told the trial that her parents held a terrified Shafilea down on the settee in their living room as the plastic bag was forced into her mouth.
"You could tell she was gasping for air," she said before adding that Shafilea "wet herself because she was struggling so much".
Asked what happened next, she told the court: "That was it, she was gone."
Alesha went on to describe how the other children ran upstairs to their bedrooms in shock and she saw her father carry Shafilea's body to the car wrapped in a blanket.
The children were later told to say nothing to the authorities amid a fear that they would suffer the same fate as their sister.
