Ruling in Obaida killer’s case on February 27

A lawyer defending a man on death row for kidnapping, raping and killing an eight-year-old boy has questioned the inconclusiveness of the medical report pertaining to his client’s sanity test before Dubai’s Cassation Court.

The Cassation Court ruling will be issued on February 27.

In January, the Dubai Appeal Court upheld the death sentence against the Jordanian man, Nidal Eisa Abdullah, who was convicted of kidnapping and raping the 8-year-old Jordanian boy Obaida Sedqi before killing him on May 20, 2016.

A committee of psychoanalysts had examined Abdullah’s sanity and their psychiatric evaluation confirmed that the convict suffers an ‘antisocial personality disorder with alcohol dependence’.

Having been appointed earlier to defend the convict by the Appeal Court and again by the Cassation Court, advocate Ali Musabbeh argued in courtroom 22 on Monday: “The medical report confirmed that my client suffers an antisocial personality disorder with alcohol dependence. The report was too general, not very clear and inconclusive … it lacked details that justify or explain why he suffers that disorder and why is he considered a danger to the society. The report just said that he is an antisocial person … It also lacked certain psychological and neurological tests, and had those tests been carried out, they would have given a clearer picture of the defendant’s mental state.”

Presenting a 10-minute defence argument before presiding judge Abdul Aziz Abdullah and his five deputy cassation judges, advocate Musabbeh contended: “Today, I am defending the law and not the crime. I am complementing the court’s role in ensuring that the law enforcement procedures are carried out properly. The appellate court should have approved our demand to have the defendant be re-examined … we [as defence] had asked the Appeal Court to resend Abdullah for second psychiatric evaluation to decide whether he suffers from a certain mental illness that makes him temporarily irresponsible for his actions and behaviours and particularly at the time when he committed the crime.”

The lawyer further asked presiding judge to overturn the appellate judgement and refer the case to a new panel of appeal judges to look into it again.

The accused was sentenced to death after he was convicted of kidnapping Sedqi from his father’s garage in Sharjah and then raping and killing him in Al Mamzar.

Abdullah had earlier denied kidnapping and raping the victim but pleaded guilty to murdering the victim.

He was also ordered to pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the boy’s family.

Records said the accused lured the boy to his car by offering to buy him a scooter and then he drove to Al Mamzar area in Dubai. There, he moved the victim to the back seat and had forced sex with him. He assaulted the boy before he strangled him with a red gotra when the victim tried to defend himself

source : gulfnews