It had earlier been reported that a Pakistani
cricketer, who beat his wife with his bat,
tried to strangle her, forced her to drink
bleach then encouraged her to kill herself,
has secured a position in a British club.
Now it has been revealed that the reason
why he was spared jail is because the judge
decided that his wife was not a vulnerable
person, therefore he did not pass the
custody threshold.
Mustafa Bashir, 34, attacked his hotel
receptionist wife with a bat then warned her
that she would be dead if he hit her with his
full might. In another attack, he held his
wife, Fakhara Karim, 33, by the neck and
forced bleach down her throat then he
forced her to overdose on tablets while
ordering her to kill herself. She spat the
bleach and drugs out then walked out of the
bathroom but Bashir called her family to
report to them that they had an argument
and that she was not obeying him. Her
family urged her to obey him and told him
that she would obey.
At the Manchester Crown Court, Fakhara
spoke of how her confidence was crushed
by her jealous lover, who berated her for
wearing westernised clothes and called her
friends ‘English slag girls’.
Judge Mansell QC sentenced Bashir to an
18-month jail term suspended for two years
and ordered him to attend a workshop
entitled “building better relationships”. He
was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs and
banned him from contacting his estranged
wife indefinitely under the terms of a
restraining order.
Judge Mansell told Bashir: “This
relationship started well but you began
controlling her and how she spent her
money. You told her how to spend her
money and you tried to turn her against her
family who you regularly insulted. She
would buy clothes that were of a western
style which you disapproved of and called
her a slag and said her friends were
‘English slag girls’.”
“But I am not convinced she was a
vulnerable person. Sometimes women who
moved from their country become trapped in
a relationship where they lose their support
network of family and friends and cannot
speak the language. This is not the case.
She is plainly an intelligent woman with a
network of friends and did go on to
graduate university with a 2:1 and a
masters – although this has had an ongoing
effect on her. She had difficulty trusting
people now, especially men.”
The judge warned Bashir that the court will
not be tolerant of violent behaviour from
him in the future and if there’s a repeat, he
will not be getting a suspended sentence but
will most likely be imprisoned.
“This court will not tolerate violence in a
relationship of this nature. It is a very fine
line between imprisonment and a suspended
sentence.”
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