Old Bailey

The trial of two men accused of helping to hide the body of an “honour-killing” victim in their back garden has collapsed because of a lack of evidence. Dashti Babaker, the cousin of the victim Banaz Mahmod, and his friend, Amir Abbas, were alleged to have joined the plot to please community elders.

Mr Babaker, 21, of Camberwell, southeast London, and Mr Abbas, 31, of no fixed address, both denied perverting the course of justice and a separate count of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a corpse.

Yesterday they left court after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence.

The body of Ms Banaz, 20, was found buried in a suitcase at a Birmingham house in 2006. She had been strangled because she fell in love with “the wrong man” and was seen to have shamed the family.

Her father, Mahmod Mahmod, her uncle, Ari Mahmod, and a third man, Mohamad Hama, are serving life sentences for her murder. Two other men, Mohammed Ali and Omar Hussein, are still wanted by police.

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