A CHALLENGE has been made over the 25-year minimum term handed to a Bradford man who was convicted of murdering his niece.
Two weeks ago Mohammed Taroos Khan, 53, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Somaiya Begum.
Now, it has been confirmed that a bid has been made for the murder jail term to be reviewed under a scheme for sentences believed to be too lenient.
The Attorney General must now decide whether to refer Khan’s sentence to the Court of Appeal, where the minimum term could be increased.
Under the rules of the unduly lenient sentence scheme, the Attorney General's Office has 28 days from the date of sentence to make a decision on the case.
They can decide to send the matter to the Court of Appeal, which could decide that the sentence: should stay the same; is unreasonably low and may increase it; or refuse to hear the case.
A spokesman for the AGO told the Telegraph & Argus: “We have received a request for this sentence to be considered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme.
"HM Law Officers have 28 days from sentencing to consider the case and make a decision.”
The jail term means Khan will be 78 by the time he can initially apply for parole.
The trial, at Bradford Crown Court, had earlier been shown CCTV footage of Khan dumping his 20-year-old niece’s body on wasteland in Fitzwilliam Street on the outskirts of Bradford city centre.
Her body was found on July 6 last year.
Khan had denied murdering Miss Begum, of Binnie Street, Barkerend, Bradford on, or around June 25, 2022, but admitted to disposing of her body.
Described as a vibrant young woman in court, Miss Begum, who was a student at Leeds Beckett University, had been living at the house in Binnie Street with another of her uncles and her grandmother.
This was under the terms of a forced marriage protection order, following attempts by her father, Mohammed Yaseen Khan, to force her to marry a cousin from Pakistan "by threat of violence", the jury had heard.
Miss Begum was found with a 10.7cm-long metal spike embedded in her back, which had penetrated her lung, when her body was found, and the court heard that strangulation was a possible cause of death.
There was also blood found on a table in the living room of her home in Binnie Street, which was a DNA match for Miss Begum.
Khan transported Miss Begum’s body to a shipping container he used at Carter Gate Works in Thornbury Road, Bradford, where it was stored overnight on June 25 last year.
He then wrapped his niece's body in a carpet and drove to Fitzwilliam Street where he dumped his her body into trees, behind a wall and among rubbish there.
Khan was also jailed for five years, to run concurrently, for a second charge of perverting the course of justice after he had admitted the disposing of her body and trying to burn her mobile phone.
He was found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict on March 14 after they had been in deliberations for almost nine-and-a-half hours spread over three days following a 10-day trial.
The Judge rejected the suggestion that it had been an honour killing, adding it was “pure speculation”, but said it had been a "dreadful attack by you on an innocent woman".
“She had her whole life ahead of her and it was cruelly cut short by her Uncle, someone who is meant to love, care and protect her.”
The unduly lenient sentence scheme allows victims of crime, their families, prosecutors and the public to ask the Law Officers to review sentences for certain crimes that they believe are too low.
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