Oslo: Family of murdered sisters not getting house back

This article doesn't mention a little fact: the police obviously suspect that Shahzad had help.

Shahzad Khan (31) doesn't want to tell police why he killed his three sisters. Therefore, the Khan family can't get their house back.

The Khan family must adapt to the loss of the three sisters Sobia (27), Saadia (24) and Nafisa (13) in cramped quarters: there are 20 people living in 60 sqm. The reason is that the elder brother, Shahzad, who is suspect of the brutal triple murder on Oct. 1st of last year, refuses questioning at the scene of the crime and to a reconstruction of the murders.

Police don't want to release the house until Shahzad explains in a more detailed manner what happened on the night of the murder. The three sisters were killed with ax and pistol.

Tahir Kahn (29), a brother, is upset at the treatment that family had received. "If I was called Tore Andre I'm sure we would have been treated better. We are treated like second rank citizens," Khan told Aftenposten.

He has been in touch with the police in order to know when they will release the house. "Every time they say that: you'll get it again quickly. If they only give me a time, it would be ok. The worst is that we must live in uncertainty. They have deceived me and my family the whole time," he says.

Police lawyer Cecilie Gulnes from Oslo police says that it is important that the suspect explain how the objects found in the house are related to the murder.

Shahzad had admitted to storing a pistol in a box. The police had the pistol alraedy, but found the box at the bottom of a closet after Shahzad had admitted to it. This box is now being kept as evidence.

Police also want to interrogate Shahzad in the house and eventually carry out a reconstruction with Shahzad in the head role.

"Reconstruction assumes that there is something to reconstruct. So long that he maintains he can't remember anything from that actual time point, reconstruction isn't realistic. If he remembers or explains himself, of course reconstruction would also be desirable," says Gulnes.

Shahzad's lawyer, Truls Dramer, says the questioning is going along slowly. "He is quite depressed and feeling down. He goes to a psychologist in jail two times a week. The medicines are also being increased," says Dramer.

Shahzad maintains the whole time that he doesn't remember anything from the murder. In police questioning he had said that the last he can remember from the day of the murder was that he stood in the shower and waited for the water to get warm.

The police has strong technical evidence tying Shahzad to the murders. They are looking for a clear motive, something Dramer doubts they will find, saying that talk of honor murder sounds to him like speculation.

Tahir Khan refuses to have an police interrogation before the family gets the house back. One of Tahir's younger brothers has however taken part in a reconstruction.

This brother came to the house immediately after the murders took place.

Tahir's fathers has also been interrogated by the police.

"My brother said he will never go into that house again. Does the police expect that the whole family will live in 60 sqm. till he eventually changes his mind? When will that happen? Next year? We have lost three sisters and have grief we must deal with. None of us have any private lives any longer." He adds that he thought bereavement "would be better in what is considered the world's best land to live in".

Source: Aftenposten (Norwegian)

See also: Norway: Triple murder could have been planned

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