Cops dig for remains of mum Rania Alayed murdered by evil husband in honour killing 10 years ago
COPS have today begun digging for the remains of a mum-of-three murdered 10 years ago in an honour killing that shocked the nation.
Tragic Rania Alayed, 25, died at the hands of her evil husband Ahmed Al-Khatib, 35, for becoming "too Westernised".
He snapped after she sought help from lawyers in a desperate bid to escape her unhappy marriage.
She fled the family home and enrolled at a college, making new friends and started a relationship with a man she met on the internet.
But she vanished in June 2013 and her body has never been found.
Al-Khatib, who was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 20 years behind bars, has never revealed where he buried her.
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But in a dramatic development officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have begun to dig at the roadside on the A19 in Thirsk, North Yorks.
A digger was seen lifting swathes of turf as a team of officers - including a cadaver dog - began the painstaking search on an embankment as cars and lorries hurtled past.
GMP said it was acting on "new information" and concentrating its efforts on the outskirts of the picturesque market town.
A spokeswoman said: "We are carrying out a detailed search in relation to recovering the body of Rania Alayed.
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"Following new information for a non-recent investigation, GMP’s Major Incident Team have been authorised to begin looking at land on the side of the A19 near Thirsk.
"Officers will be on location to carry out a thorough search of the area identified and will keep disruption to the local community to a minimum, with no wider risk or threat to the public.
"GMP remain committed to finding Rania and will act on all available lines of enquiry when it is possible to do so to help bring some form of closure to her loved ones ten years on."
Al Khatib, of Manchester, was handed a minimum term of 20 years for Rania's murder.
His brothers Muhaned and Hussain were also jailed for helping to dispose of her body.
They claimed to have dumped her somewhere on the A19 - but refused to say exactly where.
Instead, all they offered was a 19-mile stretch of the dual carriageway.
Sentencing Al Khatib, Mr Justice Leggatt said: "The contempt you showed for Rania in death matched the contempt of how you treated her in life."
Make no mistake, this was an honour killing - Al-Khatib's murderous actions were motivated by his outrage and jealousy.
William Reade
The jury at Manchester Crown Court was told Rania was invited for a meeting at the apartment of Al-Khatib's brother Muhaned, 38, where she was killed and her body stuffed into a suitcase.
Al-Khatib tried to conceal the murder by dressing in her jeans, top and shawl and walking past CCTV cameras to give the impression she was still alive.
He and Muhaned then transferred her body to the back of a motorhome and, with another brother Hussain, 34, they drove 87 miles to Thirsk, North Yorks., where the body was believed to have been buried next to a layby.
Rania's friends raised the alarm when she failed to return phone calls and text messages but Al-Khatib tried to make it look as if she had fled abroad.
Police arrested Al-Khatib in July 2013 and he confessed, saying he had pushed her during a row in the belief she was possessed by djinn - an evil spirit in Islamic folklore.
Muhaned pleaded guilty of perverting the course of justice and was jailed for three years, while Hussain was found guilty of the same charge and sentenced to four years.
After his conviction Detective Chief Inspector William Reade said Rania was "beginning to put an abusive and violent relationship behind her and had genuine cause to be optimistic for the future".
"But her husband snatched it all away in the cruellest and most despicable way possible."
He described Rania's murder as "both sickening and chilling in the extreme".
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He added: "Make no mistake, this was an honour killing - Al-Khatib's murderous actions were motivated by his outrage and jealousy that Rania would attempt to take control of her own life and live a more westernised life."
DCI Reade added that the force would "employ the most hi-tech methods" to continue the search for her body "she can be given the dignified burial she deserves".
