While in Mexico, an American woman was kidnapped by her father and brother, who forcibly took her to Yemen for an arranged marriage. On Thursday, the American judiciary indicted the father and brother of the New York state victim. Khaled Abughanem, 50, and Waleed Abughanem, 32, have been arrested and face life imprisonment for criminal conspiracy to kidnap people in a foreign country.
In early September 2021, this adult American citizen, whose name is not named in the complaint, traveled to Mexico to marry her fiancé of nine years without notifying her family, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Upon notification, the victim’s family traveled to Mexico and forced her to return to the United States against her will, according to court records.
“Women Like You Will Be Killed”
Arriving in the city of Buffalo, New York State, she was forced to drop out of university, lost access to the internet, was not allowed to contact her fiancé, and was confined at home. “The victim was told that if she does not comply and accepts an arranged marriage, she will be locked in her home and forever cut off from the outside world and her fiancé (…) will be killed,” the ministry shared with Justice.
At the end of September she flies with her family to Egypt and then to Yemen. The victim then tries to flee several times in vain. According to court documents, the victim in Cairo said his father told him, “You’re not in the West anymore, you’re in the Middle East, (here) women like you are being killed. In Yemen, they reached an area under Houthi rebel control, where his father told him he would receive $500,000 after an arranged marriage that ultimately didn’t happen.
Most of the family members left Yemen in April 2022, leaving the victim with his brothers in an apartment in the Yemeni capital. The indictment does not reveal how the US authorities found out about the victim’s situation at the end of 2022.