A MOSQUE prayer caller, who admitted murdering a Bahraini imam and then butchering his body, has been declared fit to stand trial.
The 39-year-old Bangladeshi muezzin has undergone a psychological evaluation at the request of his defence lawyer.
However, the findings state he is mentally stable, and should therefore be held accountable for his actions.
Based on the outcome of the medical report, Bahrain’s High Criminal Court yesterday adjourned his trial until October 31 to deliver its verdict.
“A medical panel examined the defendant at the Psychiatric Hospital and found he was fully aware of his actions,” states the medical report.
“He does not suffer from any mental illnesses and is responsible for his actions.”
The 39-year-old Bangladeshi muezzin has confessed to brutally beating Shaikh Abduljalil Hmood with a metal rod, plunging a knife into his stomach and then dismembering his body.
It happened after morning prayers on August 4 at the Bin Shiddah Mosque, in Muharraq, where they both worked.
The GDN exclusively reported on Sunday that the defendant had previously told prosecutors during questioning that he was mentally sound.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the defendant, who has pleaded guilty to premeditated murder.
He also admitted using a butcher’s knife to dismember the dead imam’s body before stuffing the remains inside two barrels and trying to dispose of them at a scrapyard the following day.
Abetment
A 35-year-old Bangladeshi has also been charged with aiding and abetting, helping dispose of the victim’s body and not reporting a crime.
However, the alleged accomplice denies wrongdoing and claims he believed the victim’s body parts, which he was helping dispose of, were actually scrap.
The defendants were among seven men initially arrested for the murder, but only two were charged.
A scrapyard employee who caught the defendant trying to dump the imam’s remains alerted police.
He revealed the killer had tried to buy his silence with a BD100 bribe.
In his confession to prosecutors, the muezzin said he murdered Shaikh Hmood, a married father-of-10, because the latter had filed complaints against him at the Sunni Waqf (Endowment) Directorate.
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