Roommate killer’s jail term reduced

An Indian man who stabbed his roommate to death last June has got his 10-year jail sentence reduced by the High Criminal Court of Appeals.

The 38-year-old defendant was sentenced by the criminal court to 10 years of imprisonment in January, after he was found guilty of killing his roommate and fellow national inside a labor camp in Salmabad on June 8, 2018. The court ordered to reduce the sentence as the maximum punishment for committing an assault that led to death is seven years of imprisonment, while the criminal court previously ordered to jail him for 10 years because he was under the influence of alcohol.

The High Criminal Court of Appeals said the documents and reports of the case didn’t clearly indicate, with evidence, whether or not the defendant was intoxicated. The court files showed that both men were under the influence of alcohol when a verbal dispute on the victim’s jobless situation broke out between them.

The defendant told prosecutors that he had stabbed his friend twice in the back using a kitchen knife after he, the victim, slapped twice on the face. The killer quickly escaped the labor camp in Salmabad and hid at an apartment in Manama. However, he was arrested by the police from his hideout a few hours after the incident took place.