.jpg?20260402')
A doctor who examined the body of a 41-year-old man who was allegedly murdered by his roommate has told the court that the victim’s injuries revealed that the assault was intentional – refuting previous claims of self-defence.
The accused, a 25-year-old Pakistani restaurant worker, reportedly killed the Bangladeshi victim with a hammer, then set his corpse on fire in the accommodation on a farm in Tubli.
The doctor, who attended yesterday’s session at the High Criminal Court as a witness, explained that the victim had sustained 13 injuries to his head and hands.
“There is no doubt that the victim died from injuries to the head,” he told the judges.
“We performed a thorough autopsy of the body, and discovered about 11 injuries on the head, skull, and inside the skull, that caused bleeding in his brain, which led to his death.
“Additionally, we found two injuries on his left hand and fingers, which show that the victim was trying to use it to defend himself from the assault.
“The nature of the injuries proves that the accused assaulted the victim on purpose, rather than for self-defence.”
The session also included a witness statement from a member of the investigation team who inspected the scene of the crime after it occurred.
He told the judges that they went to the farm on April 9 after they were informed of the alleged murder and fire.
“We began our investigation as soon as we saw the victim’s body at the scene of the crime,” he said.
“We talked to some witnesses and utilised an anonymous source to discover that the victim was hit with a blunt object.
“The accused attempted to hide the weapon and even cleaned it to hide traces of his crime, but we found the hammer nearby.
“More investigations revealed that the victim and the accused had personal disputes, although we could not determine what they were exactly.
“We were also able to confirm that he waited until the other two roommates left for work before executing his plans.”
During a previous session on May 25, a prosecutor requested the court to hand down the death penalty to the accused, urging the judges to ‘put down the savage beast standing before you’ and to ‘remove him from society’.
The defendant denied both charges of murder and arson, claiming to have acted in self-defence as the victim ‘had sexually harassed and molested him’.
Three witnesses testified, however, that they had never before heard of such an accusation against the victim.
When asked if they had knowledge of any ‘sexual behaviours, suggestions or misconduct’ perpetrated by the dead man, all three said that no such allegations had come up during the victim’s four-year employment.
The GDN earlier reported the details of the gruesome murder, with the Pakistani accused of hitting his colleague with a hammer ‘multiple times’ over the head, then trying to hide the evidence by burning their place of residence.
On the morning of April 9, the accused had a hammer and once alone, he allegedly took the weapon and violently attacked the victim, subjecting him to a barrage of blows, until he died.
The case has been adjourned to June 15, with the courts taking a break due to the Eid Al Adha holidays.
nader@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))