DALLAS — The son of a Texas cab driver who allegedly committed “honor killings” of his two daughters, has pleaded guilty to helping his father elude capture for more than 12 years, prosecutors said.
Islam Yaser-Abdel Said, 32, admitted he and his uncle had helped his father Yaser Said, who had once been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, move from house to house for years to avoid being arrested.
“Islam Said prioritized the whims of his father, an alleged killer, over justice for his own sisters. Thanks to the dogged work of the FBI and its law enforcement partners, however, Mr. Said’s efforts were ultimately in vain,” said U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah. “We are grateful to the many agents and officers who worked to apprehend Mr. Said, along with his father and uncle. Sarah and Amina deserve justice.”
The elder Mr. Said had been a fugitive from justice since New Year’s Day 2008, when he allegedly murdered his teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah. According to law enforcement, he shot the girls to death inside his taxicab and abandoned their bodies inside the vehicle.
The deaths have widely been believed the have been “honor killings” because Yaser Said disapproved of his daughter’s less stringent adherence to Islam. He was captured by the FBI in August 2020, and is currently in state custody.
Prosecutors say the younger Said and his uncle, Yassein Said, harbored his father, in an apartment in Bedford, Texas for nearly a decade. But after a maintenance worker spotted Yaser in 2017 and reported it to the FBI, Islam scrambled to further evade the authorities.
When an agent was dispatched to interview him,Islam refused to cooperate, and later called his uncle to say, “we have problem,” prosecutors said.
Investigators say he later harbored his father inside a home in Justin, Texas that belonged to his cousin.
Islam Said pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to conceal a person from arrest, one count of concealing a person from arrest, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison.
Islam’s uncle, Yassein Said, is set for trial on Feb. 1, 2021.
