Family sentenced to prison time for ‘honour beating’

Father, mother, uncle and aunt all get nearly two years in prison for abuse of a 17-year-old girl

The four people accused of imprisoning, stripping, whipping and nearly strangling a 17-year-old girl during a so-called 'honour beating' have all been sentenced to one year and nine months behind bars by a court in Glostrup. The court found the four guilty of aggravated assault.

On March 4 of this year, the girl’s parents told her that they were going to visit her brother. After the girl got in the car, the father instead drove to his brother’s house in Høje-Taastrup, were he told his brother to kill the girl because he did not want to see her again. The family was upset because the girl had a Danish boyfriend. The family has Palestinian roots.

The young woman told the court that her uncle forced her to take off all her clothes and then whipped her with a belt while her mother and aunt cut out large tufts of her hair. She was also choked with the belt several times until she passed out.

The prosecution said that the attack was “100 percent honour-related” and had asked the court to sentence the girl’s attackers to three years in prison each for aggravated assault and deprivation of liberty. The aunt immediately appealed against the decision, while the mother and father requested time to consider an appeal.