Sex, Lies And Muslim Honor Killings In Texas....

A five-week capital murder trial came to a swift ending Thursday when a Harris County jury took more than a half-hour of deliberations to convict a Jordanian immigrant of killing his son-in-law and orchestrating the slaying of his daughter’s close friend in what prosecutors said were “honor killings.”

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, was found guilty of masterminding two homicides as part of broader plot to kill five people, including his daughter, after she ran away from the family compound in rural Montgomery County, converted to Christianity and married a Christian man.

Family members of the victims said the quick verdict indicates the jury was certain that Irsan was guilty, and that “honor killings” are not acceptable.

“Honor killings have no place in American society,” said Michael Creed, the older brother of Coty Beavers, one of the victims. “These are not infrequent events that happen in some random part of the world. They’re happening in America and they’re on the rise.”

A lengthy punishment hearing will begin on Friday, and the jury will determine if Irsan should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the double homicide of 28-year-old Beavers in November 2012 and Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian activist who was a close friend of Irsan’s daughter, 11 months earlier.

As state District Judge Jan Krocker read the verdict, Irsan shook his head slightly and looked down at the counsel table where he was sitting in a black suit.

After the courtroom had been cleared, members of the Beavers and Bagherzadeh families, all with tears in their eyes, hugged the prosecutors who also cried.

“It’s been hard for all of us, but it’s a good day,” said Kathy Soltani, a family friend of the Bagherzadehs. “Two wonderful lives cut short. It’s senseless. It’s a hard day, even though it’s a happy day.”

The two seemingly unrelated murders shocked Houston residents in 2012, and for a time there was speculation that Bagherzadeh’s murder was the work of Iranian elements unhappy with her criticism of that country’s government. But an even darker motive was given in 2015, when Irsan, his wife, and son were charged with planning the killings to restore family honor.

In closing arguments, a team of special prosecutors insisted that the elder Irsan, the father of 12 children by two wives, was...
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