Honour killer can appeal

A MAN found guilty of the honour killing of his sister was given the go-ahead by senior appeal judges today to challenge his murder conviction.
Samaira Nazir, a 25-year-old graduate and recruitment consultant, was knifed to death in a savage attack at her home in Southall, west London, in 2005.
Her brother, greengrocer Azhar Nazir, now 32, of Southall, was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years in July last year, after a jury at the Old Bailey convicted him of murder.
The court heard that her Pakistani family disapproved of the Afghan asylum seeker she was in love with and wanted to marry.
Her cousin Imran Mohammed, 17, was detained During Her Majesty’s Pleasure with a minimum term of 10 years for her murder.
At the Court of Appeal in London today Azhar Nazir was granted permission to appeal against his conviction by Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones and Sir Michael Astill.
His full appeal, which will be heard on a date to be fixed, will centre on grounds relating to statements made to police by his co-defendant Mohammed and the anonymity granted to a witness during the trial.
Lord Justice Laws said the police interview of the co-defendant “went some distance, it might be thought, to exculpate the applicant”.
He added: “It is said that had it been before the jury for them to consider in the applicant’s case it may have greatly assisted him.”
Lord Justice Laws said it was “plainly arguable that the judge was wrong in declining to allow the jury to consider the co-defendant’s statement”.