Uncle convicted of decades-old sexual abuse of niece

Nancy Drury Duncan | The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Muslimani back in court Khalil Muslimani, 68, was back in court to face charges of child sex abuse. Muslimani was removed from court on a gurney after complaining of chest pains before his last court appearance.

ACCOMAC, Va. — The uncle of a woman repeatedly sexually assaulted in her teens has been sentenced to life in prison, and he's scheduled to be tried in the spring on charges of raping his stepdaughter.

A jury Wednesday recommended that Khalil Muslimani, 68, of Onancock, Va., serve two life terms plus 20 years. The victim, now an adult, is not being identified because she is the victim of a sex crime, but she testified at length about four events that happened in Accomack County; other incidents happened in Maryland, she told the court.

“He was a very good manipulator. I was being controlled by him. He had previously abused me,” she said. But it became more than inappropriate touching in 1998 when she was 13. Virginia has not statute of limitations on criminal charges of child molestation.

She described a trip to the beach at Assateague, Va., with her parents, her sister and Muslimani, whom she called Uncle Li.

“I was in the water, on the shallow side of the beach,” the victim said. “My parents and family were on the shore. I was in waist-deep water and my uncle was about 10 feet away from me. He dove under the water, and I felt a hand on my thigh.”

She said she next felt his head between her legs and his hand pulling her bathing suit to the side. He sexually assaulted her while her parents watched, not knowing, and it happened again the next day.

Much of the abuse happened after Muslimani moved in with the victim's family, she said. At first acted like a normal uncle, helping her with panic attacks and her homework.

“He was very nice, very patient,” she said.

“It slowly progressed into more,” she told the court. She described the first time his touch became sexual in 1997.

She said her mother was asleep. She and her uncle were watching a movie late in the evening. She said she was lying on her right side on the sofa and he was sitting next to her.

She said he got up and turned out the lights and got onto the sofa lying down behind her.

“I was uncomfortable,” she said. “I was just 12. He put his hand underneath my shirt and began to touch my breasts.”

She said she suffered a lot of guilt because of the abuse.

“It was very shameful because I didn’t understand it,” said the victim, who cried softly as she told what happened next. She said he would tell her repeatedly that they had a strong connection.

“By the time I was 16, I was completely dependent on him,” she said. “He made me feel like I needed him for everything.”

She said she remembered his sweat dripping onto her as they struggled and he sexually assaulted her.

On the witness stand, Muslimani denied everything. In lengthy questioning by his lawyer, Paul Watson, and extensive cross examination from Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Brenner, he denied that he ever went into the water with his niece at the beach and denied that she ever stayed at his house.

He spent a long time describing the sofa where the victim said the first sexual advance had taken place.

“It was at least 30 years old,” Muslimani noted, saying his bad back would not have allowed him to lie down on it as it sagged.

In heavily accented English, Muslimani denied that the room even had a television. He denied everything but spoke on the witness stand for hours, going from one subject to the next and seldom answering a question directly.

“If you believe her, you have to find him guilty,” Brenner said in closing arguments.

Watson talked about proof beyond a reasonable doubt and noted no one else witnessed any of the victim’s claims.

The jury was out 25 minutes before returning a guilty on all four charges.

In the sentencing phase of the trial, Brenner told the jury that Muslimani had been convicted in 1990 in Accomack County of carnal knowledge of a minor and attempted sexual penetration and sentenced to 12 years in the penitentiary.

The jury, after hearing a plea to consider the defendant’s poor health and advanced age, returned with a recommended sentence of 10 years for each of the carnal knowledge convictions and life for each conviction for forcible sodomy.

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