By Emily Caulkett-
A 74-year-old man is due to appear in court later charged with the 2005 murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky(pictured) after being extradited from Pakistan.
Piran Ditta Khan was brought back to the UK and taken into custody at a West Yorkshire police station, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
PC Beshenivsky, 38, had been an officer for nine months when she was fatally shot in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Mr Khan is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
West Yorkshire Police said he has been charged with murder, robbery, two counts of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possessing a prohibited weapon.
Khan was arrested in Pakistan in January 2020. He will appear at Westminster magistrates court in London on Thursday.
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said the charges were authorised in 2006, leading to the issuing of the extradition warrant.
Joanne Jakymec, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS, said: “A suspect wanted in connection with the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in 2005 has been extradited to the UK from Pakistan thanks to the continued hard work of prosecutors in the CPS’s extradition and international units.
“Since Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2020, our specialist prosecutors have been working closely with our Pakistani partners to complete the legal process in the country so that he could be extradited back to England to face the allegations from almost 20 years ago.”
Beshenivsky, who had three children and two stepchildren, was gunned down as she responded with colleague PC Teresa Millburn to a robbery at a travel agent in Morley Street on November 18 2005.
“Since Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2020, our specialist prosecutors have been working closely with our Pakistani partners to complete the legal process in the country so that he could be extradited back to England to face the allegations from almost 20 years ago,” a spokesperson added.
PC Beshenivsky, a mother of three and stepmother of two children, was shot as she responded with colleague PC Teresa Millburn to an alarm at a travel agent in Morley Street, Bradford, on 18 November 2005.
PC Millburn was also shot but survived.