Iraqi Immigrant Who Ran Over Daughter Gets 34 Years

An Iraqi immigrant was sentenced Friday to 34½ years in an Arizona prison for running over and killing his 20-year-old daughter because she became too Westernized.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle told Faleh Hassan Almaleki that forgiveness is the core of all religion, but the judge said he was struck by Almaleki’s apparent lack of remorse for killing Noor Almaleki.

The case caused outrage nationwide after prosecutors deemed it an “honor killing” because Faleh Almaleki had said his daughter dishonored his family.

Defense attorneys called the death an accident.

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A jury found Faleh Almaleki guilty of second-degree murder for the killing and aggravated assault for running over the mother of Noor Almaleki’s boyfriend. Jurors also convicted Faleh Almaleki of two counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

On Oct. 20, 2009, Noor Almaleki spotted her father when she and Amal Khalaf visited a Department of Economic Security office. When the two women left the office, Faleh Almaleki hit them with his Jeep before fleeing the country, prosecutors said.

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Faleh Almaleki moved his family from Iraq to the Phoenix suburb of Glendale in the mid-1990s. 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.

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