Father pleads not guilty to British-Pakistani girl’s murder

LONDON:

The father of a British-Pakistani 10-year-old girl whose death sparked an international manhunt pleaded not guilty to her murder in a UK court on Thursday, together with two other family members.

Sara Sharif’s body was discovered at her home in Woking, southern England, on August 10. A post-mortem examination found she had sustained "multiple and extensive injuries" over a long period.

Her father 41-year-old Urfan Sharif, her step-mother Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, deny killing the girl. They entered their pleas via video link to London’s Old Bailey court.

Read more: UK police appeal for clues about Sara’s death

Sara's body was found after an emergency call alerting officers was made from Pakistan by a man identifying himself as the father, according to detectives.

The house was otherwise empty, and the manhunt continued with Interpol and Britain's foreign ministry coordinating with authorities in Pakistan.

The day before Sara's body was found the three defendants had left the UK for Pakistan with Sharif's five other children. They were arrested in September after disembarking from a flight from Dubai. The trial is expected to start in September 2024, and to last six weeks.