A lot of divorces get messy. Very few of them involve one spouse attempting to frame the other for terrorism.
But that’s just what a Maryland restaurant owner did, according to federal prosecutors. In the midst of a divorce and facing impending financial ruin, Khalil Ahmad, 51, allegedly came up with a novel solution: Burn his restaurant to the ground, collect the insurance money, and frame his wife as a terrorist.
According to an Associated Press report, Ahmad was already facing pressure from creditors. He owed hundreds of thousands and has been the subject of various contract disputes and lawsuits over the years, according to a report by The Capital Gazette. Ahmad was allegedly worried that he would be forced to pay a large divorce settlement, and allegedly discussed killing his wife, but finally decided to frame her for burning down his restaurant.
His plan, according to prosecutors: Burn down the restaurant, Allah Rakha, then have a confederate – who was in reality a police informant – frame his wife with “a ballistic vest, firearm, bottles of alcohol and extremist jihad writings.”
Instead, Ahmad has been arrested and charged with both state and federal counts, according to the AP. The restaurant is still standing, and under new ownership, according to a report by The Capital Gazette.
Maybe there’s something to its name. Allah Rakha means, roughly, “protected by God.”
