Sharjah: A court here has sentenced a young Sudanese-American man to three years in jail for smashing his father’s head using a fire extinguisher and killing him. The accused will be deported after serving his jail term.

The verdict, pronounced on Monday by Hussain Al Assoufi, presiding judge of the Sharjah Sharia Court, found the man guilty of killing his father following an argument in the father’s shop.

Because the young man’s family had pardoned him, he avoided capital punishment and paying blood money. 

In court, the suspect’s uncle testified that his nephew received psychiatric treatment and has medical reports to prove it. There were no problems between the father and the son, the uncle said.

The defendant, for his part, denied the murder charge against him and told the judge that he had received a “message from a djinn” to kill his father.

During the court hearing, the defendant told the judge that his client had no intention of murdering his own father and did not remember anything.

Salem Sahoo, the defendant’s lawyer, told Gulf News that he will appeal the sentence to reduce the jail term, and the deportation decision depends on the judge. Sahoo has presented a written pardon from the family members to the court.

The public prosecution originally had sought capital punishment for the defendant.

Sahoo said: “The medical report from Al Amal Hospital suggests that the man was not aware of what he was doing. The accused spent seven months at Al Amal Hospital in Dubai and he was taken back to jail after he showed signs of improvement. Therefore, I sought the lesser punishment for my client in this crime.”

Violent argument

The incident took place on November 14 last year when the 50-year-old man, identified as O.Y.A., died after his 18-year-old son fatally hit him in the head with a fire extinguisher.

The incident took place around 12am in a shop owned by the young man’s father in Sharjah.

An argument between the father and son turned violent as the two men quarrelled in the shop, an official at Sharjah Police told Gulf News. The son lost his temper, picked up a fire extinguisher and hit his father in the head.

The police investigation showed that the accused, who was living and studying in the US, had mental issues and was brought back to the UAE by the father.

A prosecutor told Gulf News that the defendant acted strangely during interrogation and claimed that he was ordered by a “djinn” (a spirit from that can be either good or evil) to kill his father. 

Meanwhile, the mother told the public prosecution that her son was having psychological problems and they noticed that after he returned from the US. He used to tell them that the djinn was controlling him and asking him to do strange things.

The Sharjah Public Prosecution ordered checking the mental health of the suspect at the time of the crime.