2 face trial in Hawthorne attacks

Nov 21, 2008 (Daily Breeze - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Raisa Hanafi had just turned in for the night when her husband appeared at her bedside in their Hawthorne home.

He had a glass of water and two pills.

"Take it," Mohammad Naseem Hanafi told her.

When she refused, Mohammad Hanafi and a friend, Kisasi David Liggins, attacked her, she said.

They forced a pill into her mouth, then held her down, covering her head with a pillow while beating her and calling her names, Raisa Hanafi, 46, told a judge during a preliminary hearing Wednesday and Thursday.

The July 31 attack was the beginning of what became a five-day ordeal, during

which she says her husband and Liggins held her captive, repeatedly drugging, beating and Tasering her.

Two years before, a former business partner of Mohammad Hanafi's said he was similarly imprisoned in his home by two men who beat and bound him and threatened to hurt his family if he didn't drop a lawsuit against Mohammad Hanafi.

After hearing from the victims, Airport Courthouse Judge Amy Hogue said there was enough evidence to hold Mohammad Hanafi and Liggins for trial in the alleged crimes.

Mohammad Hanafi, 56, and Liggins, 36, will return Dec. 4 for arraignment on multiple counts of kidnapping, as well as torture, grand theft, making criminal threats, home invasion robbery, dissuading a witness, false

imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon.

Both face the possibility of life in prison.

Testifying with the help of an Erdu-language interpreter, Raisa Hanafi said she met her husband in Pakistan in 1999 -- one day after they were married.

He returned to the United States within a few weeks, and she joined him in April 2001.

Their marriage had problems "from the beginning," she said, but she always hoped that things would get better.

Many times, he told her to return to Pakistan and said he would divorce her. She said she would agree to a divorce in court, and refused to sign the documents he gave her.

She said she put money from the sale of her parents' house in a bank safety deposit box, along with jewelry and her citizenship papers and passport because Mohammad Hanafi threatened to destroy them.

Soon after the beating began, Mohammad Hanafi demanded to know where she kept her money and documents, she said.

As she testified, Raisa Hanafi pressed her hands against her scarf-covered head to show where she had been beaten on her face. She also pointed out the many places on her body where Liggins allegedly held a Taser to her.

"I was scared and shaking," she said during questioning by Deputy District Attorney Lisa Houle.

Eventually, she disclosed the location of the safe deposit box and the place outside where she buried its key, she said.

In the middle of that first night, she tried to escape. But they caught and beat her.

She said she begged them to let her go. They threatened to shoot or poison her, then chop her body into pieces and sell it as dog food, she testified.

"My understanding was I would die soon, and it would be over," she said.

The next day, Mohammad Hanafi typed up power of attorney documents, but she refused to sign them, she said.

An employee at the Washington Mutual branch in Gardena testified Mohammad Hanafi gave her the documents on Aug. 1, and she gave him access to the box. She said he left with a clear bag containing documents.

That day, Raisa Hanafi was forced to swallow more pills, then was tied to the bed, she said.

During the next four days, she remained tied up and endured repeated beatings. They hogtied her, put her in a van and moved her to two different houses.

On the last night, she was tied up but not bound to anything. Liggins was asleep outside her door, so she crawled quietly past him and made it outside. She got help from a neighbor.

Bert Babero, 58, told a similar tale of being bound and beaten by Liggins and another man, who still remains at large.

Babero said he sued Mohammad Hanafi over a business deal that went wrong and was scheduled to appear in court for the lawsuit on June 23, 2006.

Before dawn that morning, two men broke into his Los Angeles home, hit him with a metal weight and held scissors to his ear, threatening to shove them in if he didn't cooperate.

The man he identified as Liggins told him he was to drop the litigation or he would have people kill Babero's mother and daughter.

They tied Babero up with an electrical cord and tape and blindfolded him -- although he could still partially see, he said.

They ransacked his home. At one point, he heard Liggins talking on the telephone and mention the name "Mohammad," he said.

When they left four hours later, he scooted downstairs and shouted until a neighbor responded and called the police, he said.

Babero said he withdrew the lawsuit several days later because he feared for his family's safety. He stood to gain up to $75,000 from Mohammad Hanafi with the suit, he added.

Raisa Hanafi said her husband told her he had hired Liggins and another man to tie Babero up and not let him go to court, she said.

Mohammad Hanafi's attorney, Victor Sherman, tried to elicit testimony to show others could have perpetrated the crimes against Babero.

During his cross-examination of Raisa Hanafi, he never asked about the crime -- only about their marriage. He told Judge Hogue that Raisa Hanafi had the motivation to fabricate the incident because she was upset her husband wanted to end their marriage.

Liggins is representing himself and did not ask any questions during the hearing.

denise.nix@dailybreeze.com

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