a12iggymom  

My sympathy to all the family member of this poor woman and her children. Not one islamic organization has condemned this barbaric act. So much for the religion of peace. More like the religion of pieces, for women and children anyway. Now the beheaders lawyer is adding insult! When was the last domestic abuse case involving Americans, Mexican, American Indians? Please site the cases mr. lawyer!
UPDATE:
Was New York wife alive during beheading?
TV mogul accused of stabbing, decapitation won't face 1st degree murder

Police revealed the decapitated wife of a Muslim TV network founder in New York was stabbed several times with hunting knives and may have been alive as her killer beheaded her – and, despite the brutal slaying, her husband will only face charges of second-degree murder.

As WND previously reported, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, who has been charged with beheading his wife, Aasiya Hassan, 37, was the recipient of an award from the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, the self-described Muslim civil rights group that boasts of its influence on U.S. government policy.

The Hassans founded Bridges TV in November 2004. They described it as a satellite news and opinion channel aimed at portraying Muslims in a positive light following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hassan is accused of cutting off his wife's head at his Buffalo, N.Y., station Feb. 12. However, sources have now confirmed that the woman was gouged with hunting knives before she was decapitated, the Buffalo News reports.

Orchard Park police said Hassan is not a hunter, and would not say how he may have obtained the knives. Authorities have refused to discuss details of the case, and are still investigating to determine whether Aasiya was alive while her murderer decapitated her.

The victim's lawyer said Aasiya, a Pakistani national, filed for divorce after numerous incidents of domestic violence. She cited "cruel and inhuman treatment" as reason for the dissolution.

Aasiya had a restraining order against her husband as of Feb. 6 and had kicked him out of their home in Orchard Park, a Buffalo suburb. Her older sister, Asma Firfirey, told the Cape Argus in South Africa that Aasiya often called to talk about marital troubles and said she believes her sister suffered several hours of torture before being murdered.

On Feb. 12, Hassan informed police his wife was dead and told them exactly where to find her remains. Authorities located the woman's head lying next to her body in a studio hallway.

Some have described the murder as an "honor killing" – a term used to describe a killing in which a Muslim man murders his daughter or wife to defend the family's honor. In countries where Islam is practiced, the murders may be perceived as excusable or understandable punishment for a woman's disobedience.

While CNN reports Hassan admitted to killing Aasiya, Hassan's defense attorney, James P. Harrington, claims his client never confessed to the murder.

An Erie County grand jury is expected to hear Hassan's case soon. If convicted of second-degree murder, Hassan may face life in prison. According to New York State law, the charge is applied in cases where an attacker "acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse."

A first-degree murder conviction could have meant a maximum sentence of life without parole, but prosecutors say the charge may only be applied to 13 specific deliberate types of homicides, including murders of judges, law enforcement officers, witnesses, or in cases of torture, contract, terrorist or serial killings.

According to New York Penal Law Section 125.27, a person is guilty of murder in the first degree when he causes the death of a person and "acted in an especially cruel and wanton manner pursuant to a course of conduct intended to inflict and inflicting torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death."

Despite the gruesome nature of the attack, stab wounds and decapitation, and the law's torture clause, prosecutors told the Buffalo News they cannot charge Hassan with first-degree murder because the crime doesn't fit New York State requirements.

UPDATE: 
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=281833
Tue February 17, 2009
A woman who was beheaded near Buffalo, New York -- allegedly by her husband -- may have been on the phone with her sister when she was killed.

Asma Firfirey of suburban Cape Town, South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, last week when she heard Hassan tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard Hassan say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day.

Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said.

"I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died," Firfirey said in the interview, reported in English by South Africa's News 24.

Police have charged Hassan's husband, Muzzammil Hassan, with second-degree, or intentional, murder in the death of his wife, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office.

Her decapitated body was found at the offices of Bridges TV, the television network where Muzzammil Hassan was chief executive officer and Aasiya Hassan was general manager.

Hassan told Orchard Park police his wife was dead, led officers to her body and was arrested Thursday, said Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz on Tuesday contradicted a CNN report that quoted him as saying Hassan confessed to the crime.

A Buffalo attorney told CNN on Tuesday that he expects to represent Hassan but declined further comment, saying details had not yet been worked out.

Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago and became a successful banker, but he and his wife were troubled by the negative perception of Muslims, Voice of America reported in 2004.

Speaking in December 2004, Hassan said his wife, then pregnant, was worried about that perception and "felt there should be an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their identity as an American Muslim."

"So she came up with the idea and turned to me and said, 'Why don't you do it?' " he said. "And I was like, I have no clue about television. I'm a banker. ... And her comment was, 'You have an MBA. Why don't you write a business plan?' "

Bridges TV began as a television network for Muslim-Americans, aimed at overcoming the negative stereotypes associated with the religion.

"There should be a Muslim media," Muzzammil Hassan told VOA, "so that Muslim children growing up in America grow up with the self-confidence and high self-esteem about their identity both as Americans and as Muslims."

In the past few years, according to a former employee who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, Bridges TV transformed itself into more of a cross-cultural network seeking to bridge the gap between all cultures. Most of their employees were not Muslim, the former employee said, and Muzzammil Hassan himself was not devout.

Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce February 6, police said, and Muzzammil Hassan was served with divorce papers at the station. That night, he showed up at the couple's home, she notified authorities and he was served with a restraining order.

Police are not commenting on details of the crime, except to say the woman's body did not appear to have been moved. They also would not divulge what Muzzammil Hassan told police or the suspected motive. The law firm representing Aasiya Hassan refused to comment, only confirming that she had filed for divorce.

Benz told CNN on Tuesday that police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's address, but no one was arrested.

Firfirey, as well as a Pakistani woman identifying herself as another of Aasiya Hassan's sisters, characterized her as living in fear.

Firfirey said the last time she saw her sister was in May 2008, when she visited South Africa. When she arrived, she was badly injured, and Firfirey's family paid the equivalent of about $3,000 for her to be treated, she said.

Aasiya Hassan returned to America, she said, because she wanted to complete her MBA degree and "didn't want to leave her children with that monster." She said she calls Muzzammil Hassan "the fat man with evil eyes."

Aasiya Hassan would have graduated March 6, Firfirey said.

A woman in Pakistan using the name Salma Zubair posted on a blog that she is the sister of "this brutally murdered woman."

"She lived her 8 years of married life with fear in heart," Zubair wrote. "He had already frightened her enough that she couldn't muster up her guts and leave him, and when she finally did gather that much strength he killed her so brutally. She lived to protect her children from this man and his family and she died doing so."

She said Aasiya Hassan "had always been a very loving person, not even one person in this world can say a small wrong word about her ... she had always dreamed a life of a happily married family, which she did her best to achieve."

Both women said they were worried about the couple's children, ages 4 and 6. Firfirey said they were being cared for by a colleague of the couple. Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children from a previous marriage.

Members of Muzzammil Hassan's family did not return calls from CNN on Monday.

The former employee told CNN that Aasiya Hassan was popular at the station and was very kind. Muzzammil Hassan was known among employees for having a temper -- he sometimes would yell at and demean his wife, but at other times appeared to be a loving husband and father, the former employee said.

Bridges TV released a statement Monday saying its staff was "deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya Hassan and the subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the families of the victim."

continue...http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/17/new.york.beheading/?iref=mpstoryview
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Lawyer: Religion not an issue in NY beheading case 
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96EA7J80&show_article=1&catnum=1

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - A Muslim-American television executive accused of decapitating his wife remained jailed without bail Wednesday as his lawyer dismissed suggestions that culture played a role in the crime.

Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan, 44, appeared subdued during a brief appearance Wednesday in Orchard Park Village Court, where his lawyer waived his right to a felony hearing.

The beheaded body of Aasiya Hassan, 37, was found last week at the offices of Bridges TV, the Muslim-American television network the couple started to promote understanding between cultures. Hassan was arrested after walking into the police station in this Buffalo suburb Feb. 12 and telling officers his wife was dead.

Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said his officers had responded to domestic incidents involving the couple in the past. Aasiya Hassan had her husband served with divorce papers a week before her death.

"Culture, religion doesn't play a role," said defense attorney James Harrington, reacting to speculation that the crime may have been an "honor killing." Experts say such killings are still accepted among fanatical Muslim men, including in the couple's native Pakistan, who feel betrayed by their wives.

"It's not an issue in this case," said Harrington, who described the burly businessman as almost in shock.

"He has an almost blunted affect. He's having difficulty coping with this," the lawyer said.

The Islamic Society of North America issued a statement of condolence to Buffalo's Muslim community and urged leaders to take a strong stand against domestic violence.

"Women who seek divorce from their spouses because of physical abuse should get full support from the community and should not be viewed as someone who has brought shame to herself or her family," the statement by Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali said.

Erie County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable said Hassan is being held without bail pending possible grand jury action. He is charged with second-degree murder.

Security was tightened at the courthouse, with officers explaining that emotions had the potential to run high.

Bridges TV operated on television providers across the U.S. and Canada, but it stopped broadcasting after the killing. On Wednesday, the station's interim general manager, Hunaid Baliwala, issued a statement saying the staff did not have access to its facilities. Baliwala indicated the station would return to the air, however, in honor of Aasiya Hassan, who got the idea to start it while listening to post-Sept. 11 media reports.

"The two biggest issues that we currently face at Bridges TV are the negative publicity generated by this domestic violence incident and the ongoing funding constraint," Baliwala's statement said.

Nancy Sanders, a former news director at the station, said Aasiya Hassan "didn't want her children to be brought up in a world where every mention of a Muslim had some sort of terrorist connotation to it."

"This woman in particular fought so hard to change the image of Muslims in America," she said, "and how does she die? This brutal act at the hand of her husband. It just stuns me."