Two given life for Beshenivsky murder

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) Two men were jailed for at least 35 years for the murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky during a bungled armed robbery. Yusuf Jama, 20, and Muzzaker Shah, 25, were given life sentences yesterday for killing the mother-of-five, shot dead as she answered a 999 call last year.

A third member of the gang, Faisal Razzaq, 25, was given a life sentence for manslaughter and was told he will serve at least 11 years.

His brother Hassan Razzaq, 26, also found guilty of manslaughter, will be sentenced later. The pair were both cleared of murder.

Judge Mr Justice Andrew Smith sentenced them at Newcastle Crown Court at the end of an 11-week trial.

A fifth defendant, Raza Aslam, 25, was cleared of killing Beshenivsky, 38. He faces a retrial after the jury failed to agree a verdict on a robbery charge.

Another suspect in the killing, Mustaf Jama, 26, may have fled Britain disguised as a Muslim woman wearing a full veil, police said.

Beshenivsky, a mother of three children and two stepchildren, was killed on Nov. 18, her youngest daughter's fourth birthday, as she responded to a 999 call at a travel agency in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Her colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, survived being shot in the chest.

The jury heard how the men had hoped to get 100,000 pounds from the shop which ran a currency exchange and often held large sums of cash.

After the verdicts were reached on Tuesday, Beshenivsky's husband Paul paid tribute to his late wife and to her colleagues in the West Yorkshire police force.

''It has been a long and terrible ordeal but at least today those responsible for taking away Sharon have been found guilty,'' he said in a statement.

Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, senior investigating officer, said the women were shot in a ''cold-blooded and callous'' attack.

''It is tremendously difficult to undertake an investigation into the murder of a colleague,'' he said. ''There was an inevitable sense of shock amongst the team.'' REUTERS PB PM0932