Attorneys for Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan Friday said the media and public have misconstrued Hassan's actions in the beheading of his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. How could I have been so wrong? If I'd just taken a moment to think, then... umm...
Many have wrongly come to regard Hassan as an Islamic terrorist, and the general public is suffering from "Islamophobia," defense attorneys Julie Atti Rogers and Frank M. Bogulski said after a court appearance Friday. Hassan is "a nonpracticing Muslim," Rogers said, while Bogulski stressed that Hassan "doesn't pray five times a day" as an obedient Muslim would.
He does, however, behead people ...
Hassan, 44, is accused of killing and beheading his 37-year-old wife on Feb. 12, 2009, soon after she began divorce proceedings against him.
But that wasn't a religious thing. It was a cultural thing.
Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk has scheduled a May 4 hearing to consider defense challenges to an alleged confession Hassan made to Orchard Park police about an hour after his wife was killed in the office of their Bridges cable television station. During a brief court session Friday, Franczyk kept in place his order barring a psychiatric defense for Hassan, but he agreed to reconsider if Hassan's attorneys file motions in coming months.
Bogulski recently claimed that the victim drove her husband into an uncontrollable homicidal rage, and he and Rogers said Friday they are confident they can convince the judge of the propriety of their defense strategy. They acknowledged they need the court-approved release of some of Hassan's funds to finance their effort. The defense attorneys said they will go to Erie County Surrogate's Court on Tuesday to fight for the release of money from Hassan's bank accounts to pay for his proposed psychiatric defense.
Cha-ching!
The two attorneys also said they will begin court action to try to get Hassan's two children returned from Pakistan, where they were taken by Aasiya Zubair Hassan's relatives. Hassan fears the children "will be radicalized" in Pakistan, Bogulski said.
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