Death row convict’s lawyer urges appeal court to hear defence witnesses

Lawyer Intisar Al Asfoor, who is defending a death row convict, said the High Appeals Court has refused to hear defence witnesses who had testified before the High Criminal Court. She said she has requested the appeals court to give an opportunity for defence witnesses to testify before it. The 25-year-old defendant was earlier held guilty of committing a series of attacks against expatriates last year, brutally killing two of them using a hammer and attempting to run over a third one. All of his victims were Asian nationals.  

The verdict came after the Psychiatric Hospital cleared the court’s doubts on the defendant’s mental state, confirming that he was responsible for his actions. However, the defendant’s lawyer Al Asfoor requested the court in her closing arguments to have a tripartite medical commission examining the defendant’s actions throughout 48 hours, stating that her defendant suffered from schizophrenia and the recently-discovered sundown syndrome. 

“My client is very quiet in the morning but he turns into a criminal, who wants to kill, break and beat in the evening because of the sundown syndrome. “This illness symptoms match my client’s that was revealed by his mother to the medical commission, which inadequately examined him for one hour in the morning,” she said in her closing argument.  She demanded the court to hear the defence witnesses in order to understand the mental condition he has been since his birth as well as to view his records in the Psychiatric Hospital and the pills he was taking.

However, the High Appeals Court adjourned the case until October 28, 2019, to announce the verdict. The defendant told prosecutors earlier that his crimes stemmed from his hatred to expatriates after he was sacked from work. “In my latest job I was drawing a salary of BD300 monthly, but I was fired three months after joining,” he said in his statement before prosecutors. 

“This caused me to hate expatriates because they were still working, while I was fired. I then decided to kill as many of them as I could,” he added. The defendant began his crimes by mugging an Asian man in Karbabad before he rammed his car into another Asian man in Manama, pinning him between two vehicles. 

He said he decided to kill his next two victims so that they could not inform his identity to the police. The body of the first victim, Indian Sajat Ali, was found on March 29, 2018, in Tubli.  In his statement, the defendant described sneaking up on Mr Ali from behind before repeatedly smashing his head with the hammer until the victim had his last breath.  

According to his statements and court files, the man murdered his second victim, namely Indian man Mohammed Khan, on April 13, 2018.  He killed his second victim using the same method. He confessed that he smashed the second victim’s skull so he can rob him.   

“On April 13, I saw an Asian man riding his cycle. I immediately decided to kill him. I brought the hammer from my car and I drove my car in front of him. I waited for him to pass by me and I pounced on him with the hammer. “I heard his rattle so I knew he was dying. I moved his body to take out his wallet from his trousers. The wallet was empty and I left the spot,” he said.  A manhunt was launched by the police to nab the defendant after discovering the second victim’s body, which indicated the same murder method.

The man was soon arrested and put on trial on the charges of murder and robbery. The defendant reportedly killed all his victims at night and that the total of the money he stole from the victims was BD41.