By: ChandrashekarBhat
A MAN extradited from Pakistan has been remanded in custody in connection with the murder of his wife.
Zafar Iqbal, whose wife Naziat Khan was strangled to death in south London 20 years ago, virtually appeared before Croydon Magistrates Court from Heathrow police station on Wednesday (15).
Iqbal, now 61, fled Britain after the murder of Khan at their family home in Streatham in August, 2001. The absence of an extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan meant the police had to follow a lengthy legal process to bring him back to London.
Chair of the Magistrates, Edward Gold, told Iqbal to appear before the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey on Friday (17) where he will be allowed to apply for bail.
“Then you will attend again on October 13 for a plea and trial preparation hearing. Until September 17, you will be remanded in custody,” he said.
A Met Police spokesman said Iqbal was extradited from Pakistan on Tuesday (14) and was taken to a west London police station where he was charged with murder.
“Naziat’s family have been kept informed of developments throughout and continue to be supported by specialist officers,” he said, according to Mail Online.
Khan, who died at the age of 38, had four children.
“The extradition was the result of collaborative work between the Met, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the National Crime Agency,” the spokesman said.
Iqbal’s extradition came months after the UK’s minister of state for south Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Tariq Ahmad met Pakistani interior minister Sheikh Rasheed in Islamabad where they discussed the strengthening of the criminal justice systems in the two countries.
