A Mentally Unstable Man Is Acquitted Of Murdering A Woman By UAE Court

The Al Ain criminal court on Friday acquitted a man for charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder. The expat was identified as an Asian man who had stabbed a woman to death and attempted to murder another man in Al Ain.

The court had heard his case and came to the conclusion that he was suffering from mental illness and depression, and this led the court to believe that he was not aware of his dangerous actions. 

Court has ordered him to pay Dh200,000 

Apart from the acquittal, the court ordered the man to pay Dh 200,000 to the family of the deceased. According to the court records, the incident took place last year at a location in Al Ain where the man had used a kitchen knife to stab the woman in multiple spots including her chest and neck and the medical report states that her cause of death was the stabbings.

After stabbing the woman, he chased down another man and stabbed him too but he survived. Following this, in an attempt to commit suicide, the accused stabbed himself and as he was brought to the hospital after his arrest, it was found that he had been using some sort of psychotropic drug.          

The case has been in the court for hearing and during the hearings, the accused had said that he was having some psychological issues. He admitted that had bought the knife to kill himself but ended up stabbing and killing the woman in a state of delusion. He denied any premeditated intention to kill the person and regarding the other incident of stabbing a man, he denied the charges of attempt to murder and argued that he was just trying to defend himself.

The accused also denied the allegation of jeopardizing the safety of the public and using any sort of psychotropic drugs. The court, after hearing his plea, ordered to admit the accused to the Psychiatric Department at the Al Ain Government Hospital for further evaluation of his mental state during the whole incident. 

The Psychiatric Department upon evaluation reached a conclusion that the accused had multiple psychological conditions like suicidal thoughts, auditory hallucinations, sleep disturbances, sadness, and crying spells due to which his mental state would have been seriously disturbed on the day of the incident.

The medical experts recommended that he needs to be admitted to the Behavioral and Psychological sciences Department for further treatment. The experts also observed that he was suffering from manic depression that caused episodes of psychotic behaviors in him.

This condition can also trigger pathological delusions that can alter his perception which leads to the conclusion that he was not in his proper senses while the incident took place. A medical report from Khalifa Medical City in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi stated that he was a psychiatric patient who was suffering from depression that caused violent and psychotic behavior. 

In view of the observations made by the medical committee, the court passed a verdict stating that it was satisfied by the medical report submitted by the psychiatric experts from Al Ain Hospital and Khalifa Medical City, and that mental illness doesn’t come under the purview of criminal activity.

Thus, the accused is not criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the incident. Based on the medical recommendations, the court has also ordered the authorities to get him admitted to a psychiatric center for further treatment. 

The insanity plea is one of the hot topics in the area of law and legal considerations. Even though it is not something that is often used in legal defenses, it should be noted that whenever the plea is taken up, it needs to go through careful consideration.

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The modern courts often consider insanity pleas after a careful investigation has been done on the issue by a team of medical experts which proves that the accused is or was mentally unstable during the alleged incident.

In this particular case, the Al Ain court had ordered a thorough investigation into the mental state of the accused and it was cross-checked by getting reports from two medical facilities. This leads to a better understanding of the case by the court and helps saturate the insanity plea with ample evidence which proves that the accused was not in his senses while committing the crime.      

In another incident, a 28-year-old Emirati was stabbed to death at a Villa in Al Khawaneej 2, Dubai. The incident happened one month back in December when a party was being held at the Villa and one of the Emiratis was seen coming out of the house shirtless and with blood stained all over his pants.

He quickly got in his car and drove away and then the witnesses saw the victim coming out of the house bleeding, limping, and finally collapsing in the backyard. The Dubai Police had nabbed the nine culprits from different parts of Sharjah and Dubai. An investigation had been started by the Dubai Public Prosecution.