A Pakistani-American TV executive stabbed his wife 40 times and then sawed off her head because she “dared to file for divorce”, prosecutors told a New York jury in opening arguments.
Muzzammil Hassan (46), founder of a television network in US to counter negative perceptions about Muslims post 9/11 attacks, has been charged with second-degree murder for killing his estranged wife Aasiya Hassan on February 12, 2009. Mr Hassan used two hunting knives to kill Aasiya, whose body was found in a hallway of the TV office with severed head several feet away, Erie county district attorney Paul Bonanno told jurors as reported by the Post Chronicle. Aasiya was stabbed 40 times and her head was sawed off, Mr Bonanno said, asserting that the 37-year-old woman was killed because she “had dared to file for divorce, dared to seek a better life for herself and her children.”
The Pakistan-born victim was killed a week after she filed for divorce after being married for nine years.