Shafilea Ahmed's sister denies threat from parents

Shafilea Ahmed's parents both deny murdering their daughter

Shafilea Ahmed's sister has denied telling a friend she was beaten by her parents and that they threatened to kill her.

Mevish Ahmed, 21, was giving evidence at Chester Crown Court at the trial of Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49.

The couple deny murdering Shafilea, 17, at their Warrington home, in September 2003.

Miss Ahmed also denied telling Shahin Munir she should "give police her diaries" if anything happened to her.

The sister of Shafilea, whose body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004, was being cross-examined by Andrew Edis QC for the prosecution.

He told the jury about an incident in April 2009 when she was arrested on suspicion of stealing money from the family home.

He then said: "You told [Shahin] that afterwards you were beaten by your mother and your father, thrown on the floor and they said that you should go to Pakistan right now and talked about finishing you and threatened to kill you."

Miss Ahmed said: "No, I fell outside the house."

The prosecution claims around the time of the incident Miss Ahmed fell out with her parents but "returned to the house" after they promised to withdraw the theft allegation.

Mr Edis said: "You had been arrested and investigated for the theft of £600 from your own house and you said [to Miss Munir]: 'I'm going back home. If anything happens to me, give police the diary'."

Miss Ahmed replied: "I don't recall that at all."

Another sister, Alesha, 23, earlier told the court their parents suffocated Shafilea in front of the other children.

She told the court she heard her mother say in Urdu: "Just finish it here" as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth.

<bold>'Free writing</bold>

The jury has also seen extracts of writings made by Mevish Ahmed and given to a friend, Ms Munir, which appeared to corroborate Alesha's accusation.

Mevish Ahmed has said they were "fiction" and had been taken out of context, describing the documents as "free writing".

Mr Edis suggested to Miss Ahmed that in the run-up to the trial, and after it began, she tried to get Miss Munir to hand over her diary and the documents.

He told the jury that Miss Munir's mobile phone received a large number of silent calls last week.

"Would you like to tell the jury why you made an awful lot of silent calls, using a phone you don't usually use?"

Miss Ahmed said it was a joke and added: "She's done it to me."

Shafilea's parents both deny murder.

The trial continues.