Solved case · 2002
The short answer
Anooshe Sediq Ghulam, a 22-year-old Afghan refugee in Norway, was fatally attacked by her husband outside a Kristiansund police station in April 2002 as the couple headed to a custody hearing, in a case described as an "honour killing."
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for Murder of Anooshe Sediq GhulamAnooshe Sediq Ghulam was an ethnic Uzbek woman born in 1979 who grew up in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. She married Nasruddin Shamsi, also identified in some records as Zaheerudin Shamsi, becoming his second wife. According to statements she later gave to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, she was 13 years old at the time of the marriage; a birth date she subsequently provided to Norwegian authorities suggested she may have been 15 or 16. The couple arrived in Norway in May 1999 as asylum seekers and were initially granted permanent stay on humanitarian grounds; Ghulam was later granted asylum in her own right. They had two children together.
In mid-2000, Ghulam reported her husband to police for domestic violence, resulting in his brief incarceration. She sought refuge at a women's center and filed for divorce. She was subsequently relocated to another refugee reception center, Svanviken, intended to be a confidential address. Her husband nonetheless learned of her location. After he was observed near her in the area, a restraining order was issued against him, and he was arrested once for violating it.
Ghulam was killed outside the police station in Kristiansund on 25 April 2002, as she and her husband were on their way to a court hearing concerning custody of their children. Ghulam spoke fluent English and had quickly learned Norwegian. Her husband, described as a former army general from a prominent clan within Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, spoke little of either language.
The subsequent criminal trial lasted 20 days. Nasruddin Shamsi was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. During the trial, he claimed that his original plan had not been to kill Ghulam but to kill himself inside the courtroom. He also testified that he had previously been a refugee in Iran and Russia, and that only in Norway had social services "meddled" with his private life; he stated that had he known this in advance, he would not have brought his family to Norway.
Following the killing, the couple's two children were placed in a foster home and given police protection, due to concerns they might be abducted by relatives of Nasruddin Shamsi. Norwegian authorities arranged visas for members of Ghulam's family in Afghanistan to travel to Norway for her funeral, but the family did not use them; it was reported that they had been threatened and feared reprisals from Nasruddin's family. Nasruddin's own family did not attend the trial, though he has a brother living in Norway.
Anooshe Sediq Ghulam is born.
Anooshe Sediq Ghulam and her husband, Nasruddin Shamsi, arrive in Norway as asylum seekers.
Ghulam reports her husband to police for domestic violence; he is briefly incarcerated. She seeks refuge at a women's center and files for divorce.
Anooshe Sediq Ghulam is killed outside the police station in Kristiansund while she and her husband were on their way to a custody hearing.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
From the record
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
Credit: Mona EshaikerCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenHolmby Hills, Los Angeles, California · 2009
Singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles from acute propofol intoxication administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the death a homicide, and Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011.
Credit: CBS News / Travis Alexander (personal photo)Editorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMesa, Arizona, United States · 2000s
Travis Alexander, 30, was stabbed, slashed, and shot to death in his Mesa, Arizona home on June 4, 2008. His ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2013 and sentenced to life without parole in 2015 after two juries deadlocked on the death penalty.
Credit: AuburnPilot at English WikipediaPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenOranjestad, Aruba · 2005
Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old Alabama high school graduate, disappeared during a graduation trip to Aruba on May 30, 2005, and has never been found; Joran van der Sloot, last seen with her that night, was never charged over her disappearance in Aruba but later pleaded guilty to related U.S. extortion and wire-fraud charges and confessed to killing her.
Credit: nrkbetaCC BY-SA 2.0SourceSOLVEDListenOslo and Utøya, Norway · 2011
On 22 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb in Oslo's government quarter, killing 8, then carried out a mass shooting at a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp on the island of Utøya, killing 69. He was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention, Norway's maximum sentence.
Credit: RoghueCC BY-SA 3.0SourceOVERTURNEDListenBaneheia, Kristiansand, Norway · 2000
Two girls, aged 8 and 10, were raped and murdered in the Baneheia forest area of Kristiansand, Norway on 19 May 2000. Jan Helge Andersen and Viggo Kristiansen were convicted in 2001-2002; decades later Kristiansen's conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in December 2022 in what is widely regarded as one of Norway's biggest miscarriages of justice.
Credit: AqwisCC BY-SA 3.0SourceCOLDListenIsdalen (Ice Valley), Bergen, Norway · 1970s
An unidentified woman was found dead and severely burned in Isdalen ("Ice Valley") near Bergen, Norway, on 29 November 1970. Despite an extensive investigation revealing multiple false identities, her identity and the circumstances of her death remain unresolved more than fifty years later.
