No evidence for intention to murder, man’s jail term cut

Manama : The Supreme Appeals Court commuted the life sentence of a Saudi national convicted of murdering another man to seven years in prison. 

This came after the Cassation Court - Bahrain’s highest court- vetoed the life sentence issued earlier against the accused, and ordered for the man to be re-tried. 

The 53-year-old had received 25-year-sentence for stabbing his best friend Ahmed Mohammed in his sleep, in an apartment on Exhibition Avenue. 

But judges at the Cassation Court found that the accused didn’t intend to murder his victim, although prosecutors charged him with intentional homicide. 

The ruling of the Cassation Court highlighted that the accused denied during questioning to have deliberately murdered the 40-year-old victim. 

“There is insufficient evidence to support the defendant’s intention to murder the victim,” the Cassation Court’s verdict read. 

According to court reports, the convict travelled with the 40-year-old Saudi victim to Bahrain for the Eid holidays in August 2012 and rented the apartment together. 

He killed his friend following an argument over when they should return to Saudi Arabia. Later, the accused called his son-in-law and asked him to help get rid of the victim’s body. 

They bought a wheelchair and used it to transport the body, which was found by police in an abandoned car about 20 days later.  

The victim’s body was stashed between the front and back seats of a car parked in Manama. 

Both defendants later fled the country, according to court documents. 

However, the main defendant returned to Bahrain after few days and found police awaiting his arrival. His accomplice, who was tried in absentia, received six months in jail for his role in the crime.