Hero schoolboy tells how he saved girlfriend when her Muslim parents tried to strangle her in 'honor killing'

 

A heroic teenage boy has described how he saved his girlfriend's life as her parents allegedly tried to strangle her in an 'honor killing'. Ihsan Ali, 44, and his wife Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, are charged with second-degree attempted murder and attempted kidnapping after the attack on October 18. The girl, 17, who can't be named, ran away from home to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after her parents tried to put her on a plane to Iraq.

'Her father had recently been threatening her with honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another county,' the girl told police. Shocking video showed Ihsan on the ground with his daughter in a chokehold outside the school, while classmates desperately tried to free her. Ihsan and Zahraa both pleaded not guilty and are expected to go on trial in July.
The girl met her boyfriend at the school after she fled her home and school officials arranged for her to stay at a women's shelter. However, the school did not arrange transport there, so the couple went outside to catch a bus, and spotted Ihsan's pickup truck in the car park.

The teenage boy explained to police in an interview on November 6 that a friend told him Ihsan had seen them and was heading their way. [The girl] was scared, shaking, and had a tremble in her voice,' Detective Julie Mullen wrote in a report obtained by the Daily Mail. The boy stood between his girlfriend and her father as they tried to get to the bus as it arrived, and attempted to separate them when Ihsan tried to pull her away.

Ihsan then allegedly punched him in the head and he remembered falling down and everything going black. '[He] said when he got up [the girl's] dad was "choking" her and [two other students] punched [Ihsan] in the face and people were yelling to call 911,' Mullen wrote. 'He started punching her dad in the face but he continued to choke [the girl] and said others were trying to pull her out while he continued to punch her dad in the head. 

'He continued to punch Ishan until his "head got soft" and he got knocked out. The boy then helped his girlfriend off the ground, but she 'couldn't breathe' and didn't know what was going on.

(Continue)