THE sister of two children killed in a house fire said one of their killers, Fiaz Munshi, deliberately kept herself hidden from justice.

Fiaz Munshi was on Friday sentenced to 13 years in prison by Mr Justice Robin Spencer at Oxford Crown Court.

Munshi, 38, of Manley Road, Oldham, was convicted of two counts of manslaughter after the August 1997 deaths of eight-year-old Anum Khan and her 15-year-old brother Majid.

She was acquitted of their murder.

The children’s sister Shehnaz Akhtar said: “The evidence spoke for itself. She was there and the judge’s remarks were very clear.

“She was a party to the plan and she held the biggest grudge. The truth always comes out and you can’t hide from it.”

She added: “If Munshi was a victim of circumstance and in the wrong place at the wrong time, what did she do to remedy this?

“She left the country, she made a new life for herself abroad in a country that had no extradition treaty with the UK. She kept herself hidden whilst her sister, ex-boyfriend and their cronies stood trial and were found guilty.

“It’s easy to say that she was in the wrong place in the wrong time but this is not the finding of the court. “ She added: “These were killings of the most cowardly kind. This was carefully planned and carefully executed.”

Mrs Akhtar was speaking after Munshi’s brother, Tony Hussain, said Munshi had been in “wrong place at the wrong time”.

Five men were convicted of the children’s murder in 1998, and Munshi’s sister Riaz was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter in 1999.

The motive put forward by the prosecution, and which was accepted by the jury, was the fire at the family home in Magdalen Road, Oxford, was started out of revenge.

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