Muslim Father Charged With Assault for Running Over 'Westernized' Daughter

Cops capture Iraqi immigrant accused of attempted honor killing.

ByABC News
October 22, 2009, 12:44 PM

Oct. 31, 2009— -- An Iraqi immigrant who fled the country after allegedly running over his 20-year-old daughter to punish her for becoming "too Westernized" and rebuffing the conservative ways he valued is in an Arizona jail today, facing assault charges.

The 10-day manhunt for Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, who fled from Peoria, Ariz., on Oct. 20, ended Friday when he was arrested by U.S. Marshalls in Atlanta after he arrived at the airport there, sent back to the country from London.

His daugher, Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, remains hospitalized in critical condition after her father allegedly hit the young woman and her boyfriend's mother with his Jeep Cherokee on Oct. 20 in the parking lot of the Department of Economic Development in Peoria.

Noor Faleh Almaleki is in "life-threatening condition," Peoria Police spokesman Mike Tellef told ABCNews.com last week soon after the incident.

Her boyfriend's mother, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, is also still hospitalized, but with non-life threatening injuries.

"It occurred because her not following traditional family values. We've been told that by everybody," Tellef said. "He felt she was becoming too westernized and he didn't like that."

Calls to the Almaleki family weren't returned.

After the incident, Faleh Hassan Almaleki fled to Mexico and abandoned the Jeep Cherokee in Nogales, where police there eventually found and seized it, according to Peoria police.

Almaleki made his way to Mexico City, where he boarded a plane to London, but U.K. authorities refused to allow him into the country, and after U.S. officials were contacted, he was put on a plane back to the United States, the Peoria police said.

He was arrested late Friday afternoon when he arrived in Atlanta, and was returned to Arizona today.