A fanatical Iraqi-born Muslim charged with killing his beautiful daughter because she wanted to live a normal American life whined yesterday that he ran her over by accident — because he was concentrating on spitting at another woman.
Faleh Almaleki — whose murder trial began in Phoenix — sent his Jeep crashing into daughter Noor Almaleki, 20, on Oct. 20, 2009, in a parking lot after she left his abusive home to live with her boyfriend’s family and refused an arranged marriage, officials said.
Prosecutors have called the woman’s death an “honor killing,” referring to a practice in some Islamic countries in which someone — often a woman who is believed to have shamed the family — is killed.
The unforgivable “shame” Noor brought on her father was a taste for fast food, texting her friends with the greeting “dude” and liking clothes from Forever 21, according to a report in Marie Claire magazine.
Almaleki’s lawyer said his client was only trying to demonstrate his disgust with the woman standing next to Noor — her boyfriend’s mother — and wound up hitting them both.
But a prosecutor said in opening remarks that Almaleki was so enraged by his daughter’s Westernization that he “revved and raced” his car directly at his child.
“Noor wanted to live her life like those her own age, but the defendant would not allow it,” said Laura Reckart.
After Almaleki moved in with her boyfriend’s family, her father told the dad that if Noor didn’t leave, “something bad was going to happen,” a court document said.
The women were hit as they walked across the parking lot in Peoria.
Earlier, Noor had glimpsed her dad at the state office where she was helping translate forms for Amal Khalaf, her boyfriend’s mom.
“Dude,” Noor texted a friend, “my dad is here at the welfare office,” the Broward-Palm Beach New Times said.
Noor was in a coma for two weeks before dying, while Khalaf survived.
Almaleki — who fled to Mexico, then London, where he was arrested — has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an accident.