Brooklyn man charged in suspected honor killing
Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry was arraigned Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court and appeared in the courtroom of Brooklyn Federal Judge William Kuntz II on Thursday on a superseding indictment charging him with conspiring to commit murder in a foreign county, transmitting threats via interstate communications and visa fraud.
According to the superseding indictment and other court filings submitted by the government, Choudhry’s daughter, Amina Ajmal, was held against her will in Pakistan for more than three years by relatives at her father’s direction. During that time, Ajmal, a U.S. citizen, was forced into an arranged marriage with a Pakistani national for the purpose of obtaining a U.S. visa for that individual.
Ajmal eventually escaped Pakistan and returned to the United States with the assistance of a cousin and U.S. State Department officials. During subsequent recorded telephone calls between Ajmal and Choudhry, the defendant threatened to orchestrate the murder of Ajmal’s cousin if Ajmal, whose whereabouts remained unknown to the defendant, did not return immediately to the family home in Brooklyn. On Feb. 25, after Ajmal refused to return home, Ajmal’s cousin’s father and sister were shot and killed in Pakistan.
