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Two men who kidnapped a woman from a popular Boystown bar and took turns sexually assaulting her at a North Side apartment were sentenced to more than a decade in prison Friday, court records show.
Sarwar Khan, 48, received 15 years, and Quribullah Mohammad, 24, received 11 years after both pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm before Judge Domenica Stephenson imposed the sentences. Both men must serve 85% of their sentences and register as sex offenders.
On a night in late June 2023, the victim, a 22-year-old woman who had recently moved to Chicago, went out for drinks with coworkers and ended up at one of Chicago’s iconic gay bars in the 3300 block of North Halsted Street, according to prosecutors and court records.
Shortly after midnight, Khan and Mohammad entered the bar, and Khan offered to buy the woman a drink while she waited in line for the restroom, prosecutors said. She initially declined but eventually agreed reluctantly, prosecutors said. When she came out of the restroom, she felt “extremely intoxicated” and told Khan she was going home, according to a court filing.
Khan told her she was going home with him and “forcefully guided her” toward the front door, where Mohammad met them, the filing said. Both men pushed her into the back seat of a car.
Chicago police later recovered city and private surveillance footage showing the two men forcing the woman into a Toyota Prius owned by Mohammad. As Mohammad drove to Khan’s home in the 5700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, Khan sexually abused the woman in the back seat, according to prosecutors.
Once they arrived, the woman could not walk up the stairs, so Mohammad carried her to the second floor, prosecutors claimed. Khan and Mohammad raped the woman in Khan’s bedroom, prosecutors alleged.
Shortly after 2 a.m., the woman managed to call 911, but Khan allegedly knocked the phone out of her hand and ordered her not to call anyone. Mohammad fled the apartment and hid the woman’s wallet in a nearby yard before police arrived. Khan went downstairs to meet the officers when they arrived. Not satisfied with his presence, they contacted the woman by phone, persuaded her it was safe to come outside, and summoned an ambulance. She was taken to a hospital for treatment of “extensive” injuries consistent with sexual assault, along with abrasions and marks on her body, prosecutors said.
At an initial court hearing, Khan’s defense attorney said he had moved to the United States from Afghanistan more than a decade before his arrest and had been living in Chicago for about a year after previously living in Milwaukee. The attorney said Khan supported a wife and 13 children in Afghanistan by working at a parcel company and sending money back home.
Mohammad’s first defense attorney said he came to the United States from Afghanistan in November 2021 and had been living in Chicago since February 2022. According to the attorney, Mohammad worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and left the country fearing for his safety after the Taliban regained control, then supported himself in Chicago by driving for food delivery apps.
