Obaida’s killer to face firing squad
CASSATION COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR ABDULLAH CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING, RAPING AND KILLING BOY
AJordanian man will face the firing squad after a top court yesterday rejected his final appeal to overturn his death sentence issued in the kidnap, rape and killing of an eight-year-old boy in May last year.
Nidal Eisa Abdullah was found guilty of kidnapping Jordanian boy Obaida Sedqi from his father’s garage in Sharjah on May 20 and committing the crime.
Cassation Court Presiding judge Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Zarouni and his four deputy judges unanimously confirmed the capital punishment against the convict, who will be executed once the punishment is approved by the Ruler.
Reacting to the ruling, boy’s father, Ebrahim Al Sedqi, told Gulf News: “The verdict gives us peace now. If it was in my hands I would have stoned him to death ...”
A Jordanian man lost his final appeal yesterday and will now face a firing squad after a top court found him guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing an eight-yearold boy in May 2016.
Jordanian national Nidal Eisa Abdullah, who kidnapped eight-year-old Jordanian boy Obaida Sedqi, from in front of his father’s garage in Sharjah, then raped and killed him on May 20, lost his appeal before the highest court in Dubai.
The Cassation Court’s presiding judge Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Zarouni rejected Abdullah’s final appeal in which he had asked the highest court to overturn his death sentence and revert the case to the Appeal Court to hold a fresh trial.
The court accepted the Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Sharif’s closing appeal to uphold the capital punishment.
The Cassation Court’s senior secretary Jamil Mahdi registered the irrevocable punishment [cassation ruling] in the minutes of the hearing that the convict did not attend.
In January, the Dubai Appeal Court confirmed the death sentence against Abdullah. Earlier, the Court of First Instance had pronounced Abdullah guilty and sentenced him to death. Presiding judge Al Zarouni and his four deputy judges unanimously confirmed the capital punishment against the convict, who will be executed once the punishment is approved by the Ruler.
Dubai’s Attorney General Essam Eisa Al Humaidan will now forward a copy of the Cassation Court’s verdict sheet to the Rulers Office for final approval.
A committee of psychoanalysts had examined the killer’s sanity and their psychiatric evaluation confirmed that the convict suffers an ‘antisocial personality disorder with alcohol dependence’.
The convict’s court-appointed lawyer defended before the Cassation Court: “The medical report confirmed that my client suffers an antisocial personality disorder with alcohol dependence. The report was not very clear and inconclusive. It also lacked details that justify or explain why he suffers that disorder and why is he considered a danger to society.
“The report just said that he is an antisocial person … It also lacked certain psychological and neurological tests, and had those tests been carried out, they would have given a clearer picture of the defendant’s mental state.”
“I am defending the law and not the crime. I am complementing the court’s role in ensuring that the law enforcement procedures are carried out properly. The appellate court should have approved our demand to have the defendant be re-examined. The defence team had asked the Appeal Court to resend Abdullah for second psychiatric evaluation to decide whether he suffers from a certain mental illness that makes him temporarily irresponsible for his actions and behaviours and particularly at the time when he committed the crime,” contended the lawyer. He had asked presiding judge Al Zarouni to overturn the appellate judgement and refer the case to a new panel of appeal judges to look into it again.
However, the Cassation Court’s five-judge bench rejected the lawyer’s request.
Abdullah had earlier denied kidnapping and raping the victim but pleaded guilty to murdering the victim. He will also have to pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the boy’s family. Records said the accused lured the boy to his car by offering to buy him a scooter and then he drove to Al Mamzar, where he assaulted and killed the boy.