'Honor killing' of daughter nets Iraqi immigrant 34 yrs. in jail

PHOENIX - An Iraqi immigrant was sentenced yesterday to 34 1/2 years in an Arizona prison for running over and killing his 20-year-old daughter because she had become too Westernized.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle told Faleh Hassan Almaleki that he was struck by his apparent lack of remorse for killing his daughter. The October 2009 incident caused outrage nationwide after prosecutors deemed it an "honor killing" because Faleh Almaleki had said his daughter, Noor, had dishonored his family.

Defense attorneys called the death an accident. But in a statement, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, whose prosecutors handled the case, said: "The killing of one's own child is more than just a violation of the law. It is an offense against parenthood itself and the awesome responsibility parents have for nurturing and protecting their children."

A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder for the killing and aggravated assault for running over Amal Khalaf, the mother of Noor Almaleki's boyfriend. Khalaf has recovered from her injuries and was at yesterday's sentencing.

Faleh Almaleki moved his family from Iraq to the Phoenix suburb of Glendale in the mid-'90s. He wanted his daughter to adhere to Iraqi traditions, but she wanted to be a typical American girl, according to court records and her close friends.

At 17, she refused to enter an arranged marriage in Iraq. Two years ago, when she was 19, she moved into her own apartment and began working at a fast-food restaurant but quit after her parents kept showing up at her work, insisting she return home, according to a court document released by prosecutors. She then moved in with her boyfriend and his parents after saying her parents had hit her.

Almaleki regularly harassed his daughter and the Khalafs, once telling the husband that if his daughter didn't move out of their home, "something bad was going to happen."