New York: Muslim charged with beating his wife to death after she didn’t make goat for dinner
Money quote: “He comes from a culture where he thinks this is appropriate conduct, where he can hit his wife … He culturally believed he had the right to hit his wife and discipline his wife.” — Defense attorney Julie Clark
Will the judge give him a light sharia sentence? Stay tuned.
“Man charged with killing wife after she made him the wrong dinner,” NY Post, May 21, 2014
An elderly Pakistani immigrant beat his wife to death with a stick after the doomed woman made the mistake of cooking him lentils for dinner instead of the hearty meal of goat meat that he craved, according to court papers.
Noor Hussein, 75, was so outraged over the prospect of eating the vegetarian fare that he pummeled his wife, Nazar Hussein, 66, inside their Brooklyn apartment until she was a “bloody mess,” prosecutors said in opening statements of his murder trial Wednesday.
“Defendant asked [his wife] to cook goat and [his wife] said she made something else,” court papers said.
“The conversation got louder and [his wife] disrespected defendant by cursing at defendant and saying motherf–ker and that the defendant took a wooden stick and hit her with it on her arm and mouth.”
Defense attorney Julie Clark admitted Hussein beat his wife — but argued that he is guilty of only manslaughter because he didn’t intend to kill her. She said that in his home country, beating your wife is customary.
“He comes from a culture where he thinks this is appropriate conduct, where he can hit his wife,” Clark said in her opening statements at the Brooklyn Supreme Court bench trial. “He culturally believed he had the right to hit his wife and discipline his wife.”
Prosecutors, however, said Hussein meant for his wife to die.
“His intentions were to kill his wife,” Assistant District Attorney Sabeeha Madni said in court. “This was not a man who was trying to discipline his wife.”
Madni said Hussein “brutally attacked his wife as she lay in her bed” — leaving deep lacerations on her head, arms and shoulders, and causing her brain to hemorrhage.
‘“He comes from a culture where he thinks this is appropriate conduct, where he can hit his wife … He culturally believed he had the right to hit his wife and discipline his wife.”’
– Defense attorney Julie Clark
He beat her with a stick that the family had found in the street and used to stir their laundry in a washtub, court papers state.
He then tried to clean up the blood that splattered onto their bedroom wall before calling his son for help, Madni said.
“I killed her. Hurry up and come over,” Hussein told his son, prosecutors said.
Madni also said Pakistani women who lived in the same building as the Husseins would testify about the beatings Nazar received at the hands of her husband.
“They have told us about years of abuse they witnessed,” Madni said.
Hussein met his wife in Pakistan and the couple married before moving to Brooklyn, prosecutors said.
The trial continues Thursday before Judge Matthew D’Emic.
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