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AN expatriate cleaner has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of hitting a fellow Sri Lankan national on the forehead with the blunt edge of a butcher’s knife, causing a “permanent deformity”.
Delivering its verdict in the case, the High Criminal Court said that “alcohol had played with his mind”, describing the circumstances under which the 32-year-old man reportedly committed the assault.
The judges also ruled that the defendant should be deported after he has completed his jail term.
The GDN previously reported that the janitor, who lives in Qadam, repeatedly stated that he could not remember the May incident.
However, he reportedly admitted to charges, both in Public Prosecution interviews and before a judge in a hearing to determine the renewal of his pre-trial detention.
“He admitted to using a knife to harm the victim, but that he does not recall how, why, or the circumstances of the altercation as he was intoxicated,” read a court document.
In prosecution hearings, the 24-year-old victim, who works at a Japanese restaurant, insisted that the accused had meant to hurt him, and described him as being “‘very drunk” on the day of the incident.
Another Sri Lankan man, who works at a well-known fast food chain, corroborated the victim’s testimony.
“On the day of the incident, I entered into a discussion with the defendant about work, and this led him to hit me once above my right eye with a blunt object he pulled out of his trousers,” said the victim.
A medical report evaluated the 24-year-old man’s disability at ‘five per cent’, and added that though the injured area had healed it had now become “permanently locally deformed”.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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