Dubai - The court adjourned the trial to October 23 for the new lawyer to prepare his arguments and his requests.
Published: Sun 16 Oct 2016, 12:19 PM
Updated: Sun 16 Oct 2016, 9:00 PM
The Court of Appeals assigned a new lawyer to represent a Jordanian man, sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering 8-year-old Obaida.
The court adjourned the trial to October 23 for the new lawyer, Ali Musabbeh, to prepare his arguments and his requests.
The presiding judge told the police officers on Sunday to bring the 48-year-old convict (Nidal Eissa Abdullah) from his jail cell after he failed to show up in the hearing like he did last time.
Obaida killer's lawyer backs out at appeals court
A court-appointed lawyer backed out in the previous hearing from representing Abdullah for what he deemed as moral obligation.
Omran Darwish said that the accused claimed he suffered from mental illness but he did not provide proof for his claims.
"I was not able to verify his claims. My request, to refer him to an expert committee to evaluate his mental sanity and to address his country's embassy to obtain a copy of his medical file back home, was not met in the primary court," he argued.
Abdullah earlier admitted to charges of murder and consuming of alcohol.
He denied, however, charges of assaulting the victim, Obaida, also from Jordan, after kidnapping him from outside his parents' house in Sharjah.
He claimed before the court that he suffered from mental and psychological problems and he did not recall anything and is not aware of what happened on the day of the incident.
Severe punishment sought for Obaida's killer
In August, a bench of the Dubai Court of First Instance unanimously sentenced Abdullah to death after convicting him of sexually assaulting and killing the child.
The case dates back to May 20 when the child was reported missing from outside his parents' house and his body was found two days later on the side of a road in Al Warqa.
mary@khaleejtimes.com
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