The father and two other family members of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl, whose death sparked an international manhunt, entered a not-guilty plea to her murder in a UK court on Thursday.
On August 10, Sara's body was found at her home in Woking, southern England.
According to a post-mortem report, she received "multiple and extensive injuries" over an extended period of time.
The girl's alleged killers; father Urfan Sharif, 41; uncle Faisal Malik, 28; and stepmother Beinash Batool, 29, all deny any involvement.
Through a video hookup to the Old Bailey court in London, they submitted their pleas.
As per the BBC, Beinash made an appearance via a video link from Bronzefield Prison, while Urfan and Faisal did so from Belmarsh Prison.
Detectives said that after a guy claiming to be Sara's father placed an emergency call from Pakistan informing authorities, Sara's body was discovered.
Other than that, the property was unoccupied, and Interpol and the British Foreign Ministry continued to work with Pakistani officials on the manhunt.
The three defendants had travelled from the UK to Pakistan with Sharif's other five children the day before Sara's body was discovered.
When they stepped off a plane in Dubai in September, they were taken into custody.
The trial is scheduled to begin in September 2024 and run for six weeks.
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