Rania Alayed was a 25-year-old mother-of-three murdered by her husband in June 2013, in

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England.

Greater Manchester Police Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England. , Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...

(GMP) Chief Detective Inspector Bill Reade described this as an honour killing, and the prosecutors stated she was murdered for trying to achieve independence from her husband and undergoing

westernisation Westernization (or Westernisation, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby Society, societies come under or adopt what is consider ...

. Alayed's remains were found in February 2025.

Background

Alayed was of

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

descent; she grew up in refugee camps in Syria where she met her husband Ahmed Al-Khatib, marrying him at age 15. Al-Khatib, who was a blacksmith by trade and nine years older than Alayed, was noted as being violent towards her from an early stage. In February 2005, the couple moved to the United Kingdom, first settling in Norton, Teesside, before moving to

. According to testimony at Manchester Crown Court, following the move to England Al-Khatib became increasingly jealous and controlling of Alayed and subjected her to years of domestic and sexual violence. In January 2013, she reported him to the police for domestic abuse, obtained a non-molestation order and moved into a homeless hostel, from where she and her children were subsequently rehoused in

Cheetham Hill Cheetham is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north of Manchester city centre, close to the boundary with Salford, bounded by Cru ...

, March 2013. After the separation she took English classes at Openshaw College, made new friends and "embraced" her new life; Al-Khatib resided with family in nearby

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. It is to the southeast of Manchester city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A ...

. The couple had three children, two boys and a girl, and had been separated for only a few months at the time of her death, at age 25.

Crime and burial

On 7 June 2013, at the instigation of her estranged husband, Alayed went to her brother-in-law's home in Salford. According to Al-Khatib, she was to leave their children with him for the weekend and discuss plans for childcare. Before Alayed's arrival, Al-Khatib's brother Muhanned had sent his partner and children away from the property and around 45 minutes after Alayed arrived was seen leaving the property himself, taking her children with him. Al-Khatib departed shortly thereafter, wearing some of Alayed's clothing in an attempt to give the impression that she had left the property alive. On his return, he put her body in a suitcase, which was then transported in Muhanned's motorhome, and moved to an unknown burial site. After Al-Khatib had killed Alayed, he accessed her social media accounts and sent messages to her family pretending to be her and claiming to have moved to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Muhanned gave her mobile phone to an acquaintance who was travelling to Turkey and had them text her father from there to say that she was getting remarried. Friends raised concerns about Alayed's welfare when she failed to attend a meeting on 8 June, and this information was passed from Cleveland Police to

on 9 June. However, it was not until 2 July, and following a phone call from her uncle in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, that she was officially treated as a missing person. When questioned on 3 July 2013, Al-Khatib claimed that he had not seen Alayed for months and that he thought she was living in Turkey or Syria, but he was duly arrested on 4 July on suspicion of murder and, shortly thereafter, Muhanned contacted police and admitted that Alayed was dead. He claimed that her remains were buried near a layby along the A19 and Al-Khatib gave a similar version, stating that he had buried her near the A19 in Thirsk. The search for Alayed's remains encompassed a 19-mile stretch of the A19 and involved two police forces, teams from the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

and RAF, along with specialist sniffer dogs, forensic botanists and archaeologists. The search was called off in September 2013, without success. North Yorkshire Police are currently (27/02/25) searching and excavating a piece of land just off a lay-by on the A19 in Thirsk, where they are almost certain they have found the remains of the deceased above. Formal identification still outstanding.

Trial and punishment

Ahmed Al-Khatib went on trial, alongside his brothers Hussain and Muhanned, at Manchester Crown Court in April 2014. He presented the partial defence of

diminished responsibility In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...

, claiming that he was mentally ill and had killed Alayed in self-defence when she appeared to him in the form of an "evil apparition", or

djinn Jinn or djinn (), alternatively genies, are supernatural beings in pre-Islamic Arabian religion and Islam. Their existence is generally defined as parallel to humans, as they have free will, are accountable for their deeds, and can be either ...

. Throughout the trial, in an attempt to convince the jury that he was ill, he rocked back and forth, banged his head repeatedly against the dock and attacked both an interpreter and his brother. His defence was rejected and he was found guilty of murder, with the Judge stating: He received a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...

with a minimum tariff of 20 years. In addition he pleaded guilty to " perverting the course of justice" for moving the body out of view of the authorities. Muhanned Al-Khatib was acquitted of murder; he pleaded guilty to "intending to pervert the course of justice". His sentence was

discounted In finance, discounting is a mechanism in which a debtor obtains the right to delay payments to a creditor, for a defined period of time, in exchange for a charge or fee.See "Time Value", "Discount", "Discount Yield", "Compound Interest", "Effi ...

to three years in jail because information he gave assisted in the successful prosecution of his brothers. Hussain Al-Khatib was convicted of "intending to pervert the course of justice" and jailed for four years.

Aftermath

Alayed's case was one of three in 2013 which came within the jurisdiction of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and in which a known victim of domestic abuse was murdered by their partner. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which took more than four years to complete its investigation, found ‘very serious concerns’ and "recurring systems issues" in the way GMP handled domestic violence cases. Various GMP staff investigated over their handling of Alayed's case were found to have displayed "poor" or "unsatisfactory" performance by the IPCC. None, however, were disciplined for misconduct by Greater Manchester Police.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alayed, Rania 2010s missing person cases 2013 crimes in the United Kingdom 2013 deaths 2013 murders in the United Kingdom Events in Greater Manchester Female murder victims in the United Kingdom Honour killing in the United Kingdom Honor killing victims June 2013 in the United Kingdom Missing person cases in England Murder in Greater Manchester People murdered in England Salford Syrian people murdered abroad 21st-century Syrian women Uxoricides Violence against women in England Murder convictions without a body

Background

Crime and burial

Trial and punishment

Aftermath

See also

References