Federal authorities have charged a father and son with spiriting their daughter and sister out of the country and holding her captive in Yemen, where they tried to force her into a marriage.
They whisked her out of Mexico to stop her from marrying the man she wanted, held her in captivity at their home in western New York, had her mother perform a “virginity test” on her, and threatened to “bury her in the backyard” if she didn’t comply with their marriage plans, investigators said in court documents detailing the case.
In late 2021, the victim was prodded onto a plane to Egypt and then on to Yemen, where she was being held at the time authorities lodged the charges earlier this week. She is watched over by relatives as they search for a suitable traditional Houthi marriage, the investigation claimed.
The young woman told investigators that her enraged father threw her onto the stairs at one point and in another instance beat her with a belt and strangled her. She said she only survived because her mother intervened.
Charged in the case are Khaled Abughanem, 50, his son Waleed, 32, and a third person whose name is redacted in court documents but who appears to be another brother. They face one count of conspiracy to kidnap.
“If she does not straighten up, she should be killed, and no one would say anything,” Waleed Abughanem said in one text message authorities recovered from his phone.
“She is no longer my daughter,” Khaled Abughanem responded. “After what she did, she has no rights. Once she enters the U.S., you won’t be able to do anything to her.”
The texts were recovered as part of a search of Waleed Abughanem’s electronic devices by Customs and Border Protection officers when he returned to the U.S. in December.
Prosecutors said that’s when the FBI began investigating.
In another text, Khaled Abughanem said: “We would not be able to restrict her in the U.S., she disregards the moral values, the customs, the traditions, her brothers, her father, her family; she disregarded all that and just left.”
That may have been a reference to the woman’s initial flight to Mexico in 2021 to get married to her fiancé.
Identified only as “Victim 1” in the court documents, the woman, a U.S. citizen, had been a student at the University of Buffalo. But after being brought back from Mexico, she was forced to call and withdraw. When she tried to ask for help on the call, one of her relatives muted the line, investigators told the court.
And when the woman was at the airport in Cairo, Egypt, she tried to escape from the waiting area but was blocked by her father.
The FBI said it had collected evidence from the fiancé, from a nonprofit organization working with the woman, and from email communications from the woman herself.
She said at one point her father told her he was working on arranging a marriage that would see him collect a $500,000 payment. Her refusal is what spurred the strangulation attempt, she told investigators.
Investigators said the woman had traveled to Mexico in 2021 to marry her fiancé and her family scurried after her. The fiancé tried to arrange a meeting with his imam to talk about the marriage, but Khaled Abughanem refused.
“I will not be taught Islam,” he said.
He then told the fiancé’s family they would bring their daughter back home and apply for a visa to have the fiancé come to the U.S. to be married. The fiancé even provided a ring to the woman.
But it was a sham, the woman told investigators. She said her father later grabbed the ring and forced the woman to go to the airport and fly back to Buffalo.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.