Apex court vetoes sentence

The Cassation Court Bahrain’s highest court yesterday vetoed the life sentence issued earlier against a Saudi man convicted of murder. The 53-year-old had received the equivalent 25-year sentence for stabbing his friend Ahmed Mohammed in his sleep in an apartment in Exhibition Avenue. But judges at the Cassation Court found the defendant didn’t intend to murder his victim, though prosecutors had charged him with intentional homicide.

The ruling highlighted that the defendant denied during questioning to have deliberately murdered the 40-year-old victim as he stated that he didn’t know how he was killed. “Thus there is insufficient evidence to support the defendant’s intention to murder the victim,” the Cassation Court’s verdict read.

According to court reports, the convict travelled with the 40-year-old Saudi victim to Bahrain for the Eid holidays in August 2012 and rented the apartmenttogether.

He killed his compatriot following an argument. He then called his son-in-law and asked him to help get rid of Mohammed’s body. They bought a wheelchair and used it to transport the body. His accomplice, who was tried in absentia, has received six months in jail.