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Two parents face multiple charges after they allegedly attacked their daughter in an attempted honor killing just outside the child’s school in western Washington, according to local reports.
Ihsan Ali, 44, put his daughter, 17, in a chokehold at a bus stop near Timberline High School in Lacey Oct. 18, according to The Olympian. Ali’s wife, Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, also allegedly tried to choke the victim. Videos of the purported assault surfaced online.
Ihsan Ali faces first-degree attempted kidnapping, domestic violence, and second-degree assault, domestic violence as well as fourth-degree assault in Thurston County Superior Court. His bail was set at $150,000.
Zahraa Ali faces second-degree assault, domestic violence, second-degree burglary and violation of a protection order, with a bail of $500,000.
Authorities reportedly ordered both parents to surrender their passports upon release from custody and not to contact each other and their daughter.
The victim had fled home for protection at school as her parents allegedly planned to fly her out to Iraq for an arranged marriage to an older man and also threatened to kill her, according to witnesses and investigators, Fox 13 Seattle reported. (RELATED: REPORT: Refugee Confesses To Murdering His 18-Year-Old Daughter. Neighbors Suspect ‘Honor Killing’)
Ihsan Ali reportedly found his daughter outside the school as she tried to catch a bus to a shelter for refuge. Ihsan Ali dashed out of a vehicle and toward his daughter, yelling words in a foreign language. One of the victim’s fellow students replied in the same language, trying to shoo away the irate father.
Ihsan Ali seized his daughter and allegedly began hitting and choking her, prompting several witnesses to intervene.
Victor Barnes, the father of the victim’s 16-year-old boyfriend, told Fox 13 Seattle that his son intervened to free the victim but Ihsan Ali allegedly punched the boy, sending him flying onto the concrete. Meanwhile, the victim reportedly began to lose consciousness.
The victim was freed from Ihsan Ali’s alleged chokehold. Zahraa Ali then allegedly pounced and also tried to put her daughter in a chokehold but Barnes’s son reportedly freed the victim.
Both the victim and Barnes’s son ran back into the school — with the victim shouting, “My dad was trying to kill me, he was trying to kill me,” according to KOMO News. The school went into lockdown and its authorities barred the victim’s parents from entry.
A witness, Josh Wagner, told KOMO News he had been driving past the scene but stopped to intervene and held down Ihsan Ali until Lacey Police officers arrived and arrested the suspect.
Barnes told Fox 13 Seattle he took out a restraining order against Zahraa Ali as she allegedly had appeared several times at Barnes’s home searching for the victim, and because of both Ihsan and Zahraa’s alleged assault.
North Thurston Public Schools told KOMO News it was involved in the investigation of the case.
Honor-based violence is observed around the world, but particularly in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The U.S. has no federal law addressing forced marriages and honor killings, although prosecutors could cite honor as a motive for murder in court, the DOJ said. (Daily Caller)
The Daily Caller reached out to the Lacey Police Department. A police dispatcher told The Daily Caller that an officer might respond during working hours.
