A German court Tuesday sentenced a Pakistan-born couple to life in jail for the “honour killing” of their 19-year-old daughter, who had had sex before marriage.
The 52-year-old father was found guilty of strangling the teenager to death, and the 41-year-old mother was also jailed, as an accessory to murder, by the regional court in the western city of Darmstadt.
The deeply conservative Muslim parents had killed their daughter, Lareeb Khan, in January because she had been in a pre-marital sexual relationship, the court was told.
According to Mail Online, Asadullah Khan, 51, said he believed his daughter had brought ‘dishonour’ to the family by being in a relationship with a boy he did not approve of.
He said he wanted Lareeb to have an arranged marriage as he and his wife had done.
Khan’s wife, Shazia, said her daughter had stayed away from the family home for several nights in a row and had stopped wearing her headscarf.
The defence had sought a lesser sentence of manslaughter. The couple will be able to apply for parole after 15 years.