After fleeing to Pakistan: Three charged with killing girl in UK

Three members of the family of a ten-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in the south of England last month were charged with murder on Thursday evening, the day after they returned to the UK a month after fleeing to Pakistan. Police said. They appeared in court at Guildford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and were remanded in custody.

The British Public Prosecutor’s Office “authorizes proceedings against three individuals”, Sarah Sharif’s father, Urfan Sharif, 41, her partner Beinash Badul, 29, and her brother Faisal Malik, 28, local police announced in a press release. “They are being prosecuted for causing or permitting the death of a child,” Surrey Police (South) added.

International monitoring

The trio were arrested as they disembarked from a flight at London Gatwick Airport on Wednesday evening. Three members of Sarah Sharif’s family, a fixture in the British media in recent weeks, fled to relatives in Pakistan, sparking an international manhunt the day before the girl’s body was found.

The body was found at his family’s home in a village near Woking, a town in southern England, on a call from his father from Pakistan. An autopsy revealed she suffered “multiple injuries” over a long period of time. In a video last week, the child’s stepmother called the girl’s death an “accident” and explained that the fugitives were “finally ready to cooperate with the British authorities and plead in court”.

(AFP)