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An “Honor Killing” is a subject that Westerners may have difficulty understanding. For Asians it is, however, a tradition, in their countries, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, but in the United States, it is considered murder.

Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, has now died, from injuries she sustained on October 20th 2009, after she and her boyfriend’s mother were rundown by her Iraqi father, and left for dead in Peoria, a west Phoenix suburb. Noor underwent spinal surgery, but succumbed to her injuries yesterday.

Her father Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, who fled the scene, and was a subject of a manhunt, was finally arrested at Atlanta’s Airport last Thursday, after his attempt to flee to the United Kingdom was thwarted. It is reported that when he arrived in the UK, he was denied entry, and returned to the US where the police was there to welcome him. He was interviewed by the Peoria police, and transported back to Arizona to face charges.

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According to the Associated Press (AP), the county prosecutor Stephanie Low told the judge that the father had admitted he had committed the crime. Low reportedly told the court “By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family” Low further said “This was an attempt at an honor killing”

It was reported that members of the family told the authorities that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he was upset that she had become too “Westernized” and her lifestyle was not in keeping with Iraqi values.

Almaleki, who had originally faced charges of aggravated assault, since his daughter’s death, he now faces upgraded charges, according to the Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef, in an interview with the AP.

The Almalekis reportedly migrated to the US in the 1990’s, but the daughter had moved out and was living with her boyfriend’s mother, Amal Khallaf, who was also injured in the accident, and is expected to survive.