The founder of a New York television station geared towards eliminating Muslim stereotypes has been found guilty of beheading his wife, NYDN reports. Muzzammil “Mo” Hassan and his late wife Aasiya Hassan, started the Buffalo television network shortly after September 11. In February of 2009, Muzzammil murdered his wife inside the ‘Bridges TV’ studio six days after she served him with divorce papers.
Hassan never denied beheading his wife, and cited abuse and mistreatment as his motive. After firing his attorney, Hassan defended himself for the majority of the two-week trial. He frequently went on long, bizarre tangents claiming he was “a battered spouse” and that he “feared for his life.” The prosecution countered his argument with testimonies from his own children who said their father had been violent towards their mother in the past.
In Hassan’s rambling and disturbing closing remarks, he spent two hours describing himself as “a slave to his wife’s rages.” He even compared himself to Nelson Mandela and said a “religion of patriarchy” had “unleashed a bloodbath on American women because battered men have no legal way out.” The jury didn’t buy it; they deliberated for only 50 minutes before finding him guilty. The former television executive will be sentenced on March 9, and faces 25 years to life in prison.