By Jeffery Martin
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Former fugitive Yaser Abdel Said eluded authorities for years with the help of two family members, who were charged in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday.
Islam Yaser-Abdel Said, Yaser Said's son, and Yassein Said, Yaser Said's brother were charged with concealing a person from arrest, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Yaser Said had been wanted by authorities for over 12 years for allegedly murdering his daughters, 17-year-old Sarah and 18-year-old Amina, on New Year's Day 2008. Employed as a cab driver, Yaser Said allegedly left the bodies of his daughters in the backseat of his taxi in front of a Texas hotel before fleeing. Islam Said and Yassein Said allegedly assisted Yaser Said by providing him with housing and delivering him groceries.
"The defendants provided aid and comfort to an individual who is accused of murdering his own daughters," said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Division Matthew DeSarno. "Harboring a dangerous fugitive is unacceptable."
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Federal agents arrested Yaser Said after initiating surveillance on a Texas home purchased in the name of Yassein Said's daughter. Yassein and Islam Said were observed taking grocery bags into the residence and bringing trash bags out. Agents also saw the shadow of someone moving about inside the home.
On Tuesday, agents followed Yassein and Islam Said as they took garbage from the house and disposed of it at a shopping center 19 miles away. Agents retrieved the trash bags left by the two men from the waste receptacles where it was taken to a local FBI Field Office. Inside the bags were found "numerous cigarette butts and other garbage."
On Wednesday, agents served a search warrant on the residence where they discovered Abdul Said. Islam and Yassein Said were arrested in a different town.
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"In concealing Yaser Said from arrest, not only did these men waste countless law enforcement hours in the hunt for a brutal fugitive, they also delayed justice for Sarah and Amina," said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. "Thankfully, their day of reckoning has finally arrived."
If found guilty of the charges, then Yassein and Islam Said could receive a sentence of up to 5 years in federal prison. Yaser Said was indicted on capital murder charges for which he could receive the death penalty.
According to a statement sent to Newsweek by the Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office, no trial date has yet been set for Yassein and Islam Said.
Some believed that Yaser Said, who is an Egyptian Muslim, murdered his daughters in an "honor killing." Yaser Said may have shot the girls under the belief that they had shamed the family by embracing Western culture and dating American boys.
In a 2014 article published by Business Insider, Yamina's boyfriend Joseph Moreno said Yaser Said had "very traditional notions about gender relations."
"Yaser's obsessive need to control his daughters went way beyond the usual overprotectiveness many parents feel toward their children," Moreno wrote. He forbade them to date and kept tabs on them virtually at all times, often video- or audio-taping them without their knowledge. His plan was to bring them back to Egypt, where they'd be forced into arranged marriages with older men, for a price."
Irving, Texas Police Chief Jeff Spivey said at a Wednesday press conference that he didn't know "how you can use the term 'honor' and 'killing' in this instance."
"[Yaser Abdel Said] brutally murdered, shot to death, his two daughters in his taxicab," Spivey continued. "What led him to do that, I think at this point, to us, is irrelevant. The fact that he murdered his two daughters, the fact that he's been on the run for 12 years, and the fact that tonight, his flight from justice ended, and justice for Amina and Sarah begins, that's what's most important to us."
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