Brothers in ‘honour’-beating evade jail

TWO student brothers who turned to violence over a matter of family honour, evaded a jail sentence because a court was told it was out of character for both.

Nazrul Hussain (21) and his brother Fazrul (18) kicked and beat a former neighbour because they believed he had taken photographs of their younger sister and invited her into his home.

Kayas Miah was kicked twice by the older brother after being knocked to the ground.

He was so badly injured by the beating that he was kept in hospital for two days.

Sentencing them at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Judge Mushtaq Khokar told them: “However ill-feeling arose, you must recognise that your conduct was absolutely diabolical.

“You acted like thugs in the way you assaulted your victim, kicking him when he was on the floor. Anything like this has to be treated very seriously by the courts.”

Charlotte Crangle, prosecuting, said there had been previous ill-feeling between the Hussains and Mr Miah, who at the time had lived next door to them in Plato Street, Oldham.

She said on the day of the attack, in January last year, it spilled over into anger and violence. The elder brother first punched and kicked him, then when he was on the ground he kicked him again. His younger brother joined in.

Mr Miah was left with a swollen face, he was cut and bleeding, and two of his teeth had been loosened.

The court was told that when interviewed by police about what had happened the brothers claimed to have acted in self-defence because Mr Miah had been carrying a stick.

Both were described in court as being respectable young men, with no previous convictions, and from a good family.

Nazrul is in the final year of a degree course at Huddersfield University, and Fazrul is an A-level student at Oldham Sixth-Form College.

The brothers who live with their parents in Plato Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to a single charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Both were sentenced to 12 month community orders and will have to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

Judge Khokar told the older brother: “This conviction may well put you at risk of being deprived of job opportunities in the future, and that is punishment in itself.”