RUNCORN, England, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A Pakistani immigrant couple living in England were formally charged Wednesday with killing their teenage daughter in 2003.
Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed made a brief appearance in Halton Magistrates Court in Cheshire, The Guardian reported. They were ordered jailed pending a hearing Friday in Manchester Crown Court.
Investigators suspect Shafilea Ahmed, 17, who lived with her parents in Warrington in Cheshire, was killed because she refused to enter an arranged marriage. Shortly before her disappearance in 2003, she had been taken to Pakistan where she drank bleach and had to be hospitalized, a coroner said at an inquest after her body was discovered by the River Kent in Cumbria in 2004.
Ahmed, 51, a taxi driver, and his 48-year-old wife have denied for years they killed their daughter. At Wednesday's hearing, they entered no plea and spoke only to confirm their names and address although Ahmed encouraged family members with a thumbs up, The Sun said.
They were arrested on a kidnapping charge in December 2003 at a time when investigators believed Shafilea might have been forced into marriage but were released several months later.
