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Jordanian man gets death penalty for Houston ‘honor killings’

Investigators say the killings were driven by the man's anger over his daughter's decision to marry a Christian man.
Credit: KHOU
Ali Mahwood-Awad Isran

HOUSTON - A Jordanian man has been sentenced to death for a pair of "honor killings" in Houston.

Ali Mahwood-Awad Isran was convicted last month of killing his daughter's husband and her best friend.

Investigators say the killings were driven by Isran's anger over daughter Nesreen's decision to marry a Christian man.

Nesreen's best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, was gunned down outside her Galleria-area townhouse in November 2012. Prosecutors said the 30-year-old medical student and well-known Iranian activist was targeted because she helped convince Nesreen to marry Coty Beavers.

Eleven months after Bagherzadeh's death, Beavers was killed.

Both cases remained unsolved until ballistics evidence linked Isran to the murders.

Isran's wife and son are also charged in the case and will be tried separately. His daughter, Nadia, is accused of stalking her sister Nesreen and planting a GPS tracker in her car.

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Video: Daughter in alleged honor killings in court

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