Sabina Nessa was strangled to death in brutal London attack last year
\n LONDON
\nThe sister of slain UK schoolteacher Sabina Nessa has said racism played a role in the lackluster government and media response to the brutal murder of her sibling.
\nJebina Islam told BBC Radio 4 that if they were a \u201cnormal British white family,\u201d they would have received different treatment in the wake of her sister\u2019s death.
\nNessa, 28, was killed last year by Koci Selamaj in a London park. He repeatedly hit her over the head and strangled her to death.
\nBut after the attack, Nessa\u2019s family received \u201cno support from the government,\u201d her sister told the BBC.
\nShe also criticized Home Secretary Priti Patel for appearing to use the attack for \u201cpublicity reasons.\u201d
\nIslam said: \u201cYou don\u2019t know what we as a family are going through and to be honest you haven\u2019t even bothered to ask since the death of my sister. And to be honest she has no right.\u201d
\nShe added that UK media had treated the murder of her sister differently to the slaying of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive who was kidnapped and murdered the same year.
\nIslam said: \u201cMy sister didn\u2019t get as much headlines, I feel, at the start. Maybe was it down to her ethnicity?
\n\u201cShe didn\u2019t get the front pages on some of the papers, and in Sarah Everard\u2019s case she did. I think it\u2019s just down to our ethnicity, to be honest.\u201d
\nSelamaj was imprisoned last week for a minimum term of 36 years. Following the sentence, Patel tweeted: \u201cSabina Nessa lost her life due to the harrowing and callous actions of a man who\u2019s rightly now behind bars.
\n\u201cWhile I can\u2019t possibly know how Sabina\u2019s family and friends are feeling, I hope today\u2019s sentence brings them a small comfort, knowing this evil monster has faced justice.
\n\u201cAs home secretary, tackling violence against women and girls is central to my Beating Crime Plan and I am doing everything in my power to target perpetrators, protect the public and make our streets safer for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sabina Nessa was strangled to death in brutal London attack last year LONDON The sister of slain UK schoolteacher Sabina Nessa has said racism played a role in the lackluster government and media response to the brutal murder of her sibling. Jebina Islam told BBC Radio 4 that if they were a \u201cnormal British white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-254448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n