20-year-old woman raped and murdered by hitmen contracted by her own father
A brave woman forced into witness protection for two decades has broken her silence to demand tougher criminal penalties following the sickening honor killing of her twenty-year-old sister. Bekhal Mahmod exposed harrowing details regarding the 2006 rape and murder of her sister, Banaz Mahmod, who was targeted by a hitman contracted by her own father and uncle in South London. Speaking out on a national podcast, Bekhal revealed the tragic systemic police failures that ignored five separate cry-for-help reports before Banaz was strangled, stuffed into a suitcase, and buried in a Birmingham backyard.
The tragic case dates back to early 2006, when Banaz Mahmod fled an abusive arranged marriage with a man ten years her senior and fell in love with a partner of her own choice, Rahmat Sulemani. When family members spotted the couple kissing near Morden Tube station, her uncle Ari Agha Mahmod convened a family council to plot their murder, claiming the relationship brought “shame” upon their Iraqi-Kurdish name. Banaz’s father, Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, and her uncle subsequently hired hitman Mohamad Hama and cousins Omar Hussain and Mohammed Saleh Ali to execute the barbaric contract.
On January 24, 2006, the killers invaded the family residence while her parents deliberately left the property unlocked, subjecting the young woman to brutal sexual violence and strangulation in her own living room. The perpetrators bragged about the violence before packing her body into a suitcase and driving miles away to bury her remains in a deep hole in an abandoned garden. Her remains lay undiscovered for three months until her boyfriend reported her missing, leading to high-profile murder convictions with minimum terms ranging between twenty and twenty-three years for her relatives and the hired hitmen.
Bekhal, who courageously testified against her own family despite extreme death threats, condemned local police and social care agencies for failing to act on her sister’s repeated warnings prior to her death. Campaigners emphasize that law enforcement ignored documented attempts on Banaz’s life, only investigating thoroughly after the fatal assault had already occurred. Now living under strict hidden-identity protocols, Bekhal is spearheading a national campaign for “Banaz’s Law,” demanding that honor-based abuse be legally classified as a statutory aggravating factor to ensure mandatory longer prison sentences for perpetrators.
Official judicial registers confirm that the life sentences handed down to Banaz’s father, uncle, and cousins remain enforced across high-security facilities. Victim advocacy groups and legal coalitions continue pressuring lawmakers to enact statutory sentencing enhancements to prevent similar institutional oversights in future honor-abuse cases. State oversight authorities confirm that Bekhal Mahmod remains under continuous protective security while advancing legislative efforts to safeguard vulnerable women across the United Kingdom.
