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Man Sentenced To Prison Term For Burning Lover

A P Kamath in New York

For nearly an hour during the proceedings in a court room in Queens, Syeda Sufian sat dazed, often whispering prayers. But the moment the judge sentenced her former boyfriend Mohammad Mohsin to a minimum six years and a maximum 18 years in prison, she charged out of the courtroom, screaming.

As some of the court officers tried to subdue her, they looked around for family members or friends who could take her home. There seemed to be none.

But as she walked away from the courtroom, Mohsin's relatives said she was upset that he was not allowed to go free despite her recent confession that she had falsely accused him of setting her on fire.

Flashback to May when computer technician, Mohsin, 31, was convicted in the same court room of attempting to murder Sufian because she had threatened to expose their relationship to his family when he was about to dump her and go for an arranged marriage nearly five years ago.

Sufian was hailed then as a tough fighter against domestic violence and members of Sakhi, the South Asian women's empowerment group that had helped her through the legal proceedings for more than four years, embraced and cheered her.

Sufian, whose face, hands and other parts of the body, still have scars from the incident, hugged Prema Vora, a Sakhi leader and cried when she heard of the verdict. She was not in the court when the verdict was read but joined the prosecutors and Sakhi volunteers within an hour.

"No man should ever treat a woman the way he treated me," 24-year-old Sufian said after the verdict.

For Sakhi, the court victory was a signal to abused women that justice could be won, even though court battles are invariably protracted.

"People from South Asia do not have access to guns," Vora told reporters. "What is the easiest way to kill someone? Douse them with gasoline."

Mohsin and Sufian had lived together for over a year in Queens when she began asking him to marry her as he had promised. According to Sufian's advocates, Mohsin tried to kill her when she said she would reveal their relationship to his family. According to one source, the two were married in a mosque but Sufian also wanted a civil marriage but the defense and Sufian deny that allegation.

Mohsin's lawyers, who called the verdict "a horrible miscarriage of justice", stressed that she had poured gasoline to get Mohsin's attention. They said the jury bought Sufian's story -- which was presented in gruesome details as she showed her scars to the jury -- and disregarded the facts.

The prosecutors said that an enraged Mohsin emerged from the bathroom of their apartment when Sufian was washing dishes and yelled: "See how I am going to kill you."

He disregarded her screams and her warning, "You can't get away with this. We are in America, you know."

He lit a match -- and she began to burn in a few seconds. "I thought I was going to die -- and my family was nowhere around me," she said, recalling her thoughts then.

But her own efforts to put off the fire and her screams that attracted attention saved Sufian's life. But 30 per cent of her body suffered burns.

"The criminal justice system will not turn a deaf ear to women who muster the courage to stand up to their abuses," she said.

But last month, Sufian made a dramatic confession, first to an imam, and then to several newspaper reporters. She said she had burnt herself accidentally but had decided to blame Mohsin out of anger and frustration. She also said that her conscience bugged her every moment after the jury found him guilty, and she did not want an innocent man to suffer any more.

The prosecutors, however, refused to buy her recantation. They said it was not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to change their story. In Sufian's case, they suspected that members of her own Bangladesh Muslim community had put pressure on her to change her sworn testimony. Mohsin had also reportedly offered to marry her.

But Judge Stanley Katz ignored Sufian's new story.

Meanwhile Mohsin's attorney Stephen Singer said that assistant district attorney Davanand Singh had threatened to deport Sufian to Bangladesh if she persisted in her recantation and her demand that Mohsin be set free. But Singh denied Singer's charge

Before Mohsin was sentenced, Singh told the judge: "He thought he could get away with this." He must have thought, Singh said: "I have the money. I have the power. I have the influence." Mohsin had promised to marry Suffian after the verdict "only to keep himself out of the jail," Singh asserted.

EARLIER REPORT:
Burned Woman's Backers Refuse to Change Stand Despite Her Recantation

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