Free Republic

A Muslim man who immigrated from Jordan to the United States was found guilty of participating in an “honor killing” plot — including a plan to kill his own daughter for converting to Christianity — and was sentenced to death by a jury in Houston on Tuesday. Although the “honor killings” were to include five victims, the Muslim father, Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, was also found guilty of murdering his daughter Nesreen’s new husband, Coty Beavers, 28, and her best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, reported the Houston Chronicle. Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan apparently was enraged over his daughter’s conversion from Islam to...

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 56, was indicted for the 2012 murder of Gelareh Bagherzadeh, a medical student and outspoken Iranian activist, whom he allegedly blamed for influencing his daughter to marry a man without his permission. A Texas man was indicted for the killing of a medical student and outspoken Iranian activist whom he allegedly blamed for influencing his daughter to marry without his permission. Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 56, was being held in federal custody after a grand jury indicted him Thursday for shooting Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, outside her parents’ Galleria townhouse in January 2012 ... Irsan was allegedly angry that...

...Gelareh Bagherzadeh was studying molecular genetic technology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She was of Iranian descent and was active in promoting Iranian women's rights, Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties said. She was a vocal critic of the Iranian government, according to prior interviews with the Houston Chronicle. Whether discrimination or her personal background was connected to her death was not clear, Senties said. "At this point, it does not appear that she was targeted," Senties said. Investigators do not know the motive for the shooting, he said. Bagherzadeh was shot about 12:30 a.m. outside the family's home in...