Courts in the United Kingdom and Lahore are “involved in a complex legal tussle” to decide what should happen to the siblings of Sara Sharif, whose death sparked an international manhunt, BBC reported. 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. The day before Sara’s body was found, her father, 41-year-old Urfan Sharif, her step-mother Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, had left the UK for Pakistan with five other children. They were arrested in September after disembarking from a flight from Dubai and pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to start in September 2024 and it is expected to last six weeks. According to a BBC report, a series of hearings have been held in the Family Division of the London High Court since Sara’s death over the custody of her sibling. During the proceedings, the children were made “wards of court” — someone under the protection of the courts — and orders were issued to repatriate the children to the UK.
