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The Public Prosecution has asked judges at the High Criminal Court to hand the death penalty to a restaurant worker who allegedly killed his colleague-roommate with a hammer and then set his corpse on fire.
On May 25, a prosecutor gave a strongly-worded speech to the court, urging it to ‘put down the savage beast standing before you’ and to ‘excise him from society’.
The defendant, a 25-year-old Pakistani man, has denied both murder and arson charges after being accused of slaughtering a 41-year-old Bangladeshi in their residence in Tubli, claiming to have acted in self-defence.
He had earlier claimed that the slain man had sexually harassed and molested him, though three witnesses testified yesterday that they had never before heard of such an accusation against the victim.
The Bahraini restaurant owner, a Bangladeshi cook and the defendant’s co-worker were cross-examined by both the defence and the leading judge.
When asked if they had knowledge of any ‘sexual behaviours, suggestions or misconduct’ perpetrated by the dead man, all three stated that no such allegations had come up during the victim’s four-year employment.
“I didn’t personally witness the incident, but one of my employees called me that morning and told me that the victim hadn’t come to work yet,” the 32-year-old Bahraini entrepreneur told the court.
“He’s worked for me for a long time, so it was okay that he was late, he may have been sick. The employee sent the defendant to go check on the victim in their labour accommodation in Tubli.
“Next thing I know, I get a call that there’s been a fire in the farm they lived on, and I rushed to the location to find both victim and defendant in the room, with the latter laying on the floor unresponsive.
“I yelled in an attempt to wake him up, but he was dead by the time I got there.”
The Bahraini was asked if he had any knowledge of disputes in the restaurant, and he answered ‘not at all’, adding that he supervised the business closely and communicated often with the employees.
However, the cook recounted witnessing bitter arguments between the two, though their other roommate did not.
The GDN earlier reported the details of the gruesome alleged 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.
The court heard that on the morning of the April 9 incident, the accused was in possession of a hammer and was ready to carry out the assault when their other roommates had left for work.
Once alone, he allegedly took the weapon and violently brought the hammer down on his head, subjecting him to a barrage of blows until he took his life.
The 35-year-old Bangladeshi cook had told the court he woke up at around 6am and both of his colleagues were asleep, which was not unusual because they were assigned to later shifts.
Midday came and one of them was missing. Thirty minutes later, the cook asked where the victim was and the accused allegedly told him that ‘he was still asleep’.
Attempts to reach out to the victim failed, so the cook contacted the owner, who also tried to call him, to no avail. Soon, reports of a fire breaking out on the site reached the two.
The Bahraini arrived to witness thick smoke billowing into the sky as he approached the farm, and saw that the small building caught fire.
According to the prosecution, the missing worker was found lying prone and lifeless on the floor between two beds. Covered in blood, he had apparently suffered severe blunt force trauma and burns.
The owner called for the police and then spotted the accused ‘looking scared and crying’, claiming that he had tried to ‘put out the fire’.
The police and Civil Defence arrived at the scene and extinguished the flames before launching an investigation, and the suspect was arrested less than 24 hours later.
During the previous hearing, the defendant accused admitted to killing the victim and burning the body and claimed he did so only because he was ‘in fear and acting in self-defence’, denying the murder charge.
The hearing was adjourned until June 1, when the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, along with an investigator, will testify before the court.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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