Murder of Rania Alayed

Rania was of Palestinian descent,[3] she grew up in refugee camps in Syria where she met her husband Ahmed Al-Khatib, marrying him at aged 15.[4] Al-Khatib, who was a blacksmith by trade and nine years older than Rania, was noted as being violent towards her from an early stage.[5][6]

In February 2005, the couple moved to the United Kingdom, first settling in Norton, Teesside,[7] before moving to Manchester.

According to testimony at Manchester Crown Court, following the move to England Al-Khatib became increasingly jealous and controlling of Rania and subjected her to years of domestic and sexual violence. In January 2013, she reported him to the police for domestic abuse, obtained a non-molestation order and moved into a homeless hostel,[6] from where she and her children were subsequently rehoused in[8] Cheetham Hill, March 2013.[9][4]

After the separation she took English classes at Openshaw College, made new friends and "embraced" her new life;[10] Al-Khatib resided with family in nearby Gorton.

The couple had three children, two boys and a girl[11] and had been separated for only a few months at the time of her death, at age 25.[7][9]

On 7 June 2013, at the instigation of her estranged husband, Rania went to her brother-in-law's home in Salford,[5][10] according to Al-Khatib, she was to leave their children with him for the weekend and discuss plans for childcare.[7][12]

Prior to Rania's arrival, Al-Khatib's brother Muhanned had sent his partner and children away from the property and around 45 minutes after Rania arrived was seen leaving the property himself, taking her children with him. Al-Khatib departed shortly thereafter, wearing some of Rania's clothing in an attempt to give the impression that she'd left the property alive. On his return, he put her body in a suitcase, which was then transported in Muhanned's motorhome, and moved to an unknown burial site.[12]

After Al-Khatib had killed Rania, he accessed her social media accounts and sent messages to her family pretending to be her and claiming to have moved to Turkey. His brother, Muhanned, gave her mobile phone to an acquaintance who was travelling to Turkey and had them text her father from there to say that she was getting remarried.[13]

Friends raised concerns about Rania's welfare when she didn't turn up for a meeting on 8 June and this information was passed from Cleveland Police to Greater Manchester Police on 9 June.[6] However, it wasn't until 2 July, and following a phone call from her uncle in Lebanon, that she was officially treated as a missing person.[9]

When questioned on 3 July 2013, Al-Khatib claimed that he hadn't seen Rania for months and that he thought she was living in Turkey or Syria,[12] but he was duly arrested on 4 July on suspicion of murder and, shortly thereafter, his brother Muhanned contacted police and admitted that Rania was dead.[13] He claimed that her remains were buried near a layby along the A19 and Al-Khatib gave a similar version, stating that he'd buried her near to the A19 in Thirsk.[1]

The search for Rania's remains encompassed a 19-mile stretch of the A19 and involved two police forces, teams from the Royal Engineers and RAF, along with specialist sniffer dogs, forensic botanists and archaeologists. The search was called off in September 2013, without success.[14]

Ahmed Al-Khatib went on trial, alongside his brothers Hussain and Muhanned, at Manchester Crown Court in April 2014. He presented the partial defence of diminished responsibility, claiming that he was mentally ill and had killed Rania in self-defence when she appeared to him in the form of an "evil apparition", or djinn.[15] Throughout the trial, in an attempt to convince the jury that he was ill, he rocked back and forth, banged his head repeatedly against the dock and attacked both an interpreter and his brother.[13][16]

His defence was rejected and he was found guilty of murder,[10] with the Judge stating:

How you killed Rania may never be known but I think it's likely you strangled or smothered her, your actions after you murdered Rania showed no remorse - you thought she deserved to die.[...] Your ridiculous claim that when you killed Rania you were acting in self-defence after seeing her turn into a devil trying to strangle you was a further insult to her memory and the jury’s intelligence.[8]

He received a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 20 years.[17] In addition he pleaded guilty to "perverting the course of justice" for moving the body out of view of the authorities.

Muhanned Al-Khatib was acquitted of murder; he pleaded guilty to "intending to pervert the course of justice". His sentence was discounted to three years in jail because information he gave assisted in the successful prosecution of his brothers.[8]

Hussain Al-Khatib was convicted of "intending to pervert the course of justice" and jailed for four years.[1]

Rania's case was one of three in 2013 which came within the jurisdiction of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and in which a known victim of domestic abuse was murdered by their partner. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which took more than four years to complete its investigation, found ‘very serious concerns’ and "recurring systems issues" in the way GMP handled domestic violence cases.[9][18]

Various GMP staff investigated over their handling of Rania's case were found to have displayed "poor" or "unsatisfactory" performance by the IPCC. None, however, were disciplined for misconduct.[6]

Honour killings in the United Kingdom:

• Shafilea Ahmed
• Banaz Mahmod
• The murder of Surjit Athwal was planned in the UK and done in India
• Murder of Tulay Goren
• Heshu Yones
• Rukhsana Naz