A British woman is facing the death penalty by stoning after it was alleged she was forced to marry her Pakistani uncle and give birth to his child in a migration scam.
The couple, who have one child, are reportedly accused of adultery by Pakistani prosecutors, who carry the penalty of flogging or death by stoning under Shariah law.
The bride, a 30-year-old former company director who is believed to be based in the UK, married her mother's brother during a visit to the South Asian country in April 2021, according to MailOnline.
It is reported that she moved to her home in a village in Pakistan for about a month after the wedding, and that is when she became pregnant with her uncle's child.
The woman, in a now-deleted video posted online, said she was pressured to go to Pakistan to marry him to try to get “documents” that would allow her to move to the UK.
She later returned to the UK on her own to receive the child, and her uncle is believed to have been arrested in Pakistan and held in prison pending an investigation.
'You polluted my life'
He said: “He told me that I would help him on his trip to England and he would get a car, a home, a lot of money and our life would be fine.
“Now she doesn't worry about her child and me anymore. He has ruined my life and I need help.”
A Pakistani police report seen by MailOnline says the British woman voluntarily married her uncle and later became pregnant with his child in an attempt to secure her immigration to Britain.
The uncle is said to have admitted, in front of the local elders and Muslim clerics, that he married his niece, after the neighbors raised the alarm to the religious authorities.
The report said the seniors said, “The story behind the whole episode was to gain entry into the United Kingdom through British Pakistanis. [bride]”.
A legal opinion was obtained from the prosecution department which described the relationship as “impermissible in Shariah”, the report said.
It added: “Establishing marital relations on the basis of such marriage is prohibited and falls under the category of adultery.”
My uncle was arrested in Pakistan
Under Shariah law, convicted adulterers can be sentenced to flogging or death by stoning.
The report said that a case is being made against the suspect.
After being reported, my uncle went into hiding and never came to the UK, but this week he was arrested in Pakistan along with the witness of the marriage.
Speaking from the family's remote home in Britain, the woman's father told MailOnline: “We've heard what's happening in Pakistan, but we haven't heard anything about her.
“We didn't want him to marry her. We did not agree to the marriage and tried to talk him out of it.
“We no longer have anything to do with him and I don't know where he lives now.”
The Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have been contacted for comment.
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