Upper Nazareth man charged with girlfriend’s fiery murder

58-year-old man set fire to his girlfriend as she sat in their car, murdering her, according to indictment.

Court gavel justice judge legal law 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Court gavel justice judge legal law 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
A 58-year-old man set fire to his girlfriend as she sat in their car, murdering her, according to an indictment filed in the Nazareth District Court on Thursday.
Nashad Basul, originally from Reina, is also charged with false imprisonment for allegedly forcing the victim, Natalia Nariman, to remain locked inside their Upper Nazareth apartment for years.
According to the indictment, Nariman met Basul in 1993 after she made aliya from Uzbekistan. She converted to Islam, and the couple lived in Upper Nazareth with their baby daughter and Nariman’s son from a previous relationship.
Basul refused to let Nariman leave the house, according to the indictment. He also allegedly ordered Nariman not to speak with other men, and slapped her.
Tension began to grow between the couple, the indictment alleges, as Nariman expressed her desire to work outside the home and swapped her traditional Muslim dress for Western clothing.
Eventually, Basul plotted to murder Nariman, the indictment alleges. Basul allegedly took Nariman to a hotel in Afula where he gave her alcohol to drink.
In the early morning of September 10, as the couple was driving home, Basul is said to have left the car, leaving Nariman strapped into the passenger seat.
Basul allegedly set fire to Nariman as she sat in the car, then left the scene.
Firefighters later discovered Nariman’s partly charred remains in the passenger seat.