A middle-aged man who killed his neighbour with a knife following a row over a car parking space has been sentenced to death by the High Criminal Court.
The Bahraini was found guilty of murdering 57-year-old Ali Mahdi Albasri, who he left bleeding outside his apartment in Shakhoora.
Gasps were heard in the courtroom when the leading judge announced the death penalty ruling at yesterday’s hearing. Judges also ordered the murderer pay undisclosed damages to the victim’s legal heirs.
At 6.30am on February 27, the court heard that the late Mr Albasri left his home to get breakfast for his family when he ‘got into a fight over a parking spot’ with the defendant.
The trial, as reported in the GDN, had several twists and turns, in which a host of witnesses were heard, along with an autopsy and two psychiatric reports.
During the trial’s first hearing, the man admitted to premeditated murder, having earlier told police officers that he was waiting for the victim to leave his apartment so he could kill him.
Later on in the trial he retracted his confession. His defence team placed a plea of ‘insanity’ attempted to paint their client as a paranoid man who experienced fits of psychosis.
The defendant, said to be aged in his 40s, claimed that he had ‘no memory of the incident’.
A psychiatric evaluation, conducted during the investigation, found that the accused could be held responsible for his actions, but the defence was granted permission for a further medical assessment to be conducted. The Health Ministry Medical Commission once again concluded that the accused did not have any mental issues that would render him incapable of answering the charge.
Two brothers and a sister of the defendant, who testified before judges, also stated that he was a troubled, mentally unwell man, who had been suffering from delusions for years.
“My brother perceives bad people as animals. He wanders around the village barefoot and sometimes sleeps in cemeteries,” his brother testified.
The three siblings claimed that he also experienced spells of violent paranoia, which caused him to smash the neighbourhood’s security cameras due to a fear that he was constantly being watched.
The suspect’s lawyer argued that he should be in the Psychiatric Hospital instead of prison, claiming that he was a threat to himself and fellow inmates at the Dry Dock Detention Centre.
An attorney representing the family and estate of the victim had earlier scoffed at the defence’s attempted insanity stance.
He pointed out that the courtroom was filled with security cameras and yet the defendant had not made any outbursts during the trial’s numerous hearings.
A medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy on the victim’s body, said that the direct causes of death were stab wounds. He had been slashed seven times in the neck, chest and abdomen.
Mr Albasri was buried in his hometown of Janusan, a day after his death, as hundreds of condolence messages poured in, remembering him as a pious man who was an active member of his community.
In a previous hearing, prosecutors demanded that the judges deliver a maximum sentence for the crime. “The prosecution was able to identify the suspect through security camera footage of the vicinity where the victim’s corpse was found,” the Public Prosecution stated yesterday.
“It appeared that he was a neighbour of the victim, and an order was issued to arrest and question him, and he gave a detailed confession of the crime.
“The defendant admitted that he had decided ahead of time to kill the victim, based on past disputes, and laid in wait for him to leave his house, then leapt on him, stabbing him repeatedly.” The appeal process against the conviction and sentence will follow.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))