Father’s murderous guilt over honour killing revealed by body language

LONDON: This is the chilling nod which betrayed a murdering husband and wife who killed their 17-year-old daughter because she refused an arranged marriage.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed suffocated their teenage daughter Shafilea with a plastic bag at their family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in 2003.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed escaped justice for nine years. But the couple's body language gave them away as they embarked on a campaign of deception. The parents feared Shafilea would bring shame on their family and police believed a so-called honour killing had taken place.

But the couple managed to avoid justice for nine years and brazenly conducted television interviews in which they claimed they were being unfairly suspected because of their Muslim faith. A new documentary 'Faking It: Tears of a Crime' on Investigation Discovery has now examined the tell-tale signs the killer mum and dad were lying to the cameras.

In one interview Iftikhar defiantly protested his innocence, saying: "What they come up with is to say 'you're a Muslim family, Pakistani culture, this is the way you people are'." But when he was asked if they would kill their own daughter, the couple's body language hinted at their dark secret. Iftikhar snapped back "never" but instinctively looked away from the interviewer before nodding.