Dubai: A psychiatrists’ panel has been ordered by a court for the second time to expedite the psychiatric evaluation of a man on death row for kidnapping, raping and killing an eight-year-old boy.
For the second time in November, the Dubai Appeal Court renewed its call to prosecutors to urge the special panel of psychiatrists at Rashid Hospital examine the 49-year-old Jordanian, Nidal Eisa Abdullah, to decide whether he was aware of his actions when he kidnapped, raped and killed eight-year-old Jordanian, Obaida Sedqi, on May 20.
“We call on prosecutors to urge the panel to expedite the process of examining the convict and providing the court with the report by December 18,” said presiding judge Eisa Mohammad Al Sharif in courtroom 20.
During Sunday’s hearing, the court-appointed lawyer Ali Musabbeh Dahi was spotted approaching Abdullah and giving him his business card to communicate with him.
“Sir judge, the lawyer should call me … I cannot call him. I am deprived of everything even phone calls,” the convict told the court.
“They [jail wardens] will allow you to use the phone and call your lawyer,” replied presiding judge Al Sharif.
“No. He must call me … I am banned from everything, even water,” Abdullah was heard as telling the judge.
Advocate Dahi told the appellate court earlier that the convict’s sanity has to be examined to be able to know whether he suffered any mental illness or instability at the time when the crime happened.
In August, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted Abdullah and sentenced him to death for kidnapping Obaida on May 20 from his father’s garage in Sharjah and then raping and killing him in Al Mamzar.
