Wife beheaded, but man claiming abuse

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - It has been nearly two years since Muzzammil Hassan directed police officers in this serene Buffalo suburb to the decapitated remains of his estranged wife inside the Muslim-oriented television station the couple ran.

With his second-degree murder trial set to start, the question for jurors may be less about whether Hassan killed Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, after she filed for divorce than about why.

While behind bars, Hassan, 45, has been laying the groundwork for a battered-spouse defense, reaching out to reporters and others to say he acted in self-defense after suffering years of physical and emotional trauma.

The claims would be part of the defense case, Hassan's attorney, Jeremy Schwartz says. Jury selection was scheduled to begin today.

Experts predicted the strategy would be a tough sell. Hassan's wife was smaller than he and had alleged years of abuse by her husband in a divorce affidavit signed six days before she died.

"The nature of the homicide demonstrates such rage and anger toward his wife that it will be difficult to make him out to be a victim of domination and abuse," said Casey Gwinn, president of the San Diego-based National Family Justice Center Alliance.

In a jailhouse interview with WGRZ-TV last fall, Hassan described "this huge feeling of relief" after his wife's death in February 2009.

"When everything was over, I felt I had escaped from a terrorist camp," he said.

Those who knew Aasiya Hassan have described her as a gentle and sweet woman who was working toward an MBA while serving as general manager of their station, Bridges TV. She also cared for the couple's young son and daughter and Hassan's two older children from one of two previous marriages.

Researchers say about 10 to 15 percent of domestic-abuse cases involve male victims. But rarely is anyone as insistent about being a victim as Hassan is, experts say.

Hassan has written to news outlets and agencies, supplying them with research that shows women can be abusers. He included claims that his wife abused him.

Aasiya Hassan was frequently abused shortly after marrying Hassan in October 2000 in Pakistan, she said in her divorce affidavit, which was obtained by the Buffalo News and posted on its website.

In the 21-page affidavit, she tells of black eyes, bloodied noses and swollen lips and instances of her husband ransacking their house. She wrote that he would use his 6-foot-plus size to his advantage, sometimes sitting on her, even while she was pregnant. She said she suffered a miscarriage after one such incident in 2006.

She described being kept up all night as Hassan poured water on her, shook her and removed pillows from their bed to prevent her from sleeping while he lectured her about her "character flaws." He called her a bad mother and a bad Muslim, she said.

"The defendant's desire to help me fix my 'personality flaws' has been a recurring theme throughout our marriage," she wrote. "On many occasions, the defendant and I have spent hours and even full days in our bedroom while he lectures me about my character flaws and attempts to revamp my personality."

Orchard Park police were called to the house on several occasions, Chief Andrew Benz said.

The Hassans founded Bridges TV, an American Muslim network, in 2004 with the goal of building cultural understanding and countering negative images of Muslims after Sept. 11. Muzzammil Hassan, who had previously worked for Kodak and M&T Bank, was president and chief executive of the station.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita and prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable declined to discuss the trial but have said the case would be built in part on Hassan's alleged admissions and strong motive evidence.