A MOSQUE prayer caller, who admitted murdering a Bahraini imam and then butchering his body, has been sentenced to death.
The 39-year-old Bangladeshi muezzin had earlier 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.
He was caught trying to dump the victim’s body parts in a scrapyard in Askar the following day.
The defendant was yesterday found guilty of premeditated murder by the High Criminal Court, where he appeared behind a glass partition to hear the ruling.
He previously admitted in court that he had carried out the murder “in revenge” for the victim filing a complaint against him at the Sunni Waqf (Endowment) Directorate.
His accomplice, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi who helped him in trying to dump the body, was jailed for 12 months.
He will be deported after completing his sentence.
Defence lawyers said they would lodge appeals against the convictions at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court.
Earlier, the muezzin underwent a psychological evaluation at the request of his defence lawyer.
However, the findings stated he was mentally stable, and should therefore be held accountable for his actions.
The GDN earlier exclusively reported the defendant had previously told prosecutors during questioning that he was mentally sound.
Revenge
“The defendant planned and carried out the brutal murder of Shaikh Abduljalil Hmood (the victim),” said the 14-page ruling.
“He chose one of God’s homes to use as a theatre for his heinous crimes.
“The killer said he committed the murder in revenge, when the victim filed a complaint against him at the Sunni Waqf (Endowment) Directorate and told him his contract would not be renewed.
“The defendant was selling free visas, and he was paying another person BD100 per month to carry out his duties, such as cleaning the mosque.”
The ruling said on the day of the murder, the defendant committed his crime after the worshippers had left following Fajr (dawn) prayers and the imam, a married father-of-10, was reading the Quran.
“He lured the victim by asking him to fix a light bulb and hit him over the head twice and over the right shoulder three times until the victim fell unconscious,” read the verdict.
“The defendant then dragged him (the victim) into the bathroom in the women’s section of the mosque.
“He cut open his victim’s abdomen with a knife, causing his guts to spill out.
“He then dismembered his victim’s body into seven pieces using a butcher’s knife.
“The co-defendant helped him hide the body.”
The court said prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence against the defendants, in addition to the killer’s confessions.
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.
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.
The court has ordered the murder weapons to be confiscated.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
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