Man who killed father to spend at least 15 years in jail
Convicted killer Zaineddin Al Aalak must spend a minimum 15 years behind bars for the grisly murder and dismemberment of his father, a judge ruled Thursday.
In handing Al Aalak a mandatory life sentence, Court of Queen's Bench Justice David Labrenz agreed an increase in parole ineligibility from the mandatory minimum of 10 years was warranted.
Crown prosecutor Carla Macphail suggested a 16- to 18year range, while defence counsel Alain Hepner argued for a 13- to 14year period of parole ineligibility.
Labrenz called the case a tragic one.
“There is no end of tragedy to go around between the accused and the deceased and the family and society.”
Before Labrenz sentenced him, Al Aalak addressed the court, saying he was remorseful for taking his father's life, but insisting he was in an altered state of mind.
“I ask God for forgiveness,” he said.
“I ask God for healing for myself and others. I do not minimize the immense trauma I have caused my mother, my sisters, my brother and society,” the convicted killer said.
“If I could replace my life with the life of Mohamed Al Aalak and doing so, thereby bring him back to life, I certainly would.”
Jurors ruled in December that Al Aalak wasn't suffering a delusional breakdown when he strangled his father and dismembered the body.
The three-woman and nine-man jury deliberated about six hours over two days before finding Al Aalak guilty of second-degree murder and causing an indignity to a body in connection with the killing of his father.
Jurors had been asked to find the accused not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder after hearing evidence from a defence psychiatrist that Al Aalak was suffering a psychotic episode at the time. Dr. Sergio Santana said Al Aalak was experiencing delusions when he killed his father at the accused's southeast Calgary townhouse.
Al Aalak, 24, testified he was receiving telepathic messages from God in the early morning hours of July 15, 2017, telling him the person inside his home was an imposter there to kill him.
He struck his father in the head twice with a hammer and repeatedly punched him, knocking him unconscious.
He then manually strangled him. The following day he went to the victim's Calgary home, retrieved a circular saw and returned to the crime scene, where he cut his father's body into eight pieces.
The remains, minus Mohamed Al Aalak's right hand, which his son said he tossed in a trash bin, were discovered when a construction worker came across the dead man's decapitated head at an Okotoks construction site on July 17, 2017.
Macphail argued that among the aggravating factors which justified an increase from the mandatory minimum of 10 years parole ineligibility was the disposal of the body to hide the crime.
“The murder and the treatment of the body was brutal, callous and gruesome,” Macphail told Labrenz.
She noted that along with dismembering and decapitating his father, Al Aalak disposed of the victim's right hand at an unknown location.
“His right hand was never located by police and therefore was never able to be buried with the rest of his body in Iraq,” she said.