Family kidnapped woman to force her into marriage, feds say. Brother pleads guilty
A New York woman wanted to marry her fiancé when she was kidnapped by her family as part of a plan to force her into an arranged marriage in Yemen, federal prosecutors said.
The woman was tricked by her family into traveling with them to Cairo, Egypt, and then to Sana’a, Yemen — where she was held against her will for nearly two years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
Following her return to the U.S. on April 6, 2023, her father and two brothers were each charged with a kidnapping conspiracy, court records show.
One of her brothers, 32, of Lackawanna, waived his indictment and pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, prosecutors said in a Sept. 18 news release.
This means he agreed that he was aware of a felony — the plan to kidnap his sister and make her stay in Yemen to force her to marry — but didn’t alert authorities, according to his plea agreement.
He and his father were arrested in February 2023, while the woman was still in Yemen, McClatchy News previously reported.
McClatchy News isn’t naming the woman’s family members to protect her identity.
Attorneys separately representing the woman’s brothers and father didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment Sept. 20.
In a recorded jail call, the woman’s father had threatened to “slaughter” her, calling her “despicable,” and saying she “destroyed us and made people laugh at us” in regards to his prosecution, court documents show.
Her brother, who pleaded guilty, was described in court as “treating obedience to (his) father as obedience to God,” prosecutors said.
The father is considered a danger to the woman, as well as her brother due to his obedience to his father, according to court documents.
The father and the other brother are due in court for trial in October, prosecutors said.
The kidnapping
In September 2021, the woman secretly traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, to marry her fiancé, who she knew for several years, without her family knowing, McClatchy News previously reported.
She feared her family would force her to marry someone else, according to prosecutors, who said her family then arrived in Guadalajara and found her.
The woman returned to the U.S. with her family after her mother, father and brother told her she could marry her fiancé if she went back with them, prosecutors said.
Her brother, who pleaded guilty, knew this was a lie, according to prosecutors.
Once in the U.S., her father and two brothers confined her to her family’s home in Lackawanna for weeks in September and October 2021, prosecutors said.
Her father took her phone, telling her “she would be traveling outside the United States whether she liked it or not, or he would bury her in the backyard,” according to a February 2023 news release.
Her family also forced her to withdraw as a student from the University of Buffalo, prosecutors said.
In October 2021, her family told her that she could wed her fiancé if she went with her father, brother and other family members to Egypt and Yemen, according to prosecutors.
Then she was forced to stay in Egypt and Yemen, where she was unable to have her passport or leave on her own without her family members’ permission, because she was unmarried, prosecutors said.
Her brother who entered a guilty plea visited Yemen at times while his sister was there, according to prosecutors.
When he wasn’t there, he “instructed his wife to monitor and supervise (his sister),” prosecutors said.
The brother lied to U.S. Customs and Border Protection when he arrived in the U.S. from Yemen in December 2022 and was asked about where his siblings were, including his sister, according to prosecutors.
He told an officer that his sister was in the U.S., hiding how she “had been kidnapped and was being involuntarily held in Yemen,” prosecutors said.
The woman’s return to the US
On April 6, 2023, the woman landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, after members of her family arranged for her to come back, court documents say.
Several federal agents met her when she landed to escort her to somewhere safe, according to court documents.
That’s when her sister appeared and ran toward them, trying to grab her and shoving agents, court documents say.
“With the aid of the federal agents, (she) was ultimately separated from her sister and taken to a secure location,” prosecutors wrote.
The woman has since changed her name, The Buffalo News reported.
This story was originally published September 20, 2024 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Family kidnapped woman to force her into marriage, feds say. Brother pleads guilty."
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