Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, died at an
Arizona hospital on Monday after clinging to life for nearly two weeks.
Her dad, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, was in jail charged with two counts of aggravated assault when he got word his daughter was dead.
The 48-year-old father, who was angry that his daughter was not adhering to traditional Iraqi values, now likely faces a murder charge.
Prosecutors have called Almaleki's death a sick "honor killing."
"By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," county prosecutor
Stephanie Low told a
Maricopa County judge earlier.
Almaleki was walking through a parking lot in suburban
Phoenix with her boyfriend's mother on Oct. 20 when her father gunned the engine of his SUV and mowed down both women, police said.
Afterward, he fled to
Mexico and abandoned his
Jeep Grand Cherokee in
Nogales before making his way to
Mexico City.
There, he boarded a plane for
Britain where the cops denied him entrance and put him on a plane back to Arizona.
Almaleki's friend,
Amal Edan Khalaf, 43, also was hospitalized after the crash, but her injuries were not life-threatening.
Relatives told reporters that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who immigrated with his family in the mid-1990s, made his daughter marry a man in
Iraq. But she defied him by returning to Arizona to live with her boyfriend and his mom.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/11/03/2009-11-03_noor_faleh_almaleki_20yearold_arizona_woman_hit _with_car_driven_by_angry_iraqi_f.html#ixzz0VpAOwl NT
Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20-year-old Arizona woman hit with car driven by angry Iraqi father, dies