A Pakistani gardener charged with first-degree murder has confessed to killing a Qatari woman in her home last month.
The defendant, who appeared in court for the first time on Monday, told a panel of judges through a translator that he plotted to kill the woman – the sister of his sponsor – because he wanted revenge.
The man, who is apparently in his 40s 34 years old, worked on a farm, but was occasionally sent by the victim’s brother to her house to help with gardening. According to a legal source who spoke to Doha News, the victim was in her early 60s 68 years old and lived alone in a home in Doha.
Al Raya reports that the defendant felt insulted by the victim. The legal source told Doha News that she apparently spilled food on him in anger several months ago and berated him. The victim’s brother apparently apologized for her behavior and sought to smooth over the fraying relationship with monetary compensation, the defendant said.
What happened
However, the defendant said he was still angry. He admitted in court that in early May, he waited for hours before ambushing the victim after she watered her garden before dawn.
According to the legal source, the man hit her on the head while wearing gardening gloves, dragged her into her house after she bit him, and then strangled her with an undershirt.
The prosecutor called for the maximum punishment for premeditated murder, but the potential sentence for this charge was not specified in court.
During the confession on Monday, the defendant had no legal counsel, but a public defender is expected to be appointed to him.
The case has been adjourned until Aug. 27, when the court is expected to call a forensic examiner and the police who investigated the case as witnesses.
Thoughts?
Correction: This story has been updated to include the proper age of the victim and defendant.
Planned premeditated murder of an elderly woman. Maximum sentence should be on the table
if it was the oppossite , the killer would go scot free…
Umm premeditated planner murder of an old lady? No the killer wouldn’t go free if it was the opposite.
Wouldn’t they go scot free if it was an Old Pakistani Lady who was murdered and the killer was a Qatari Diplomat to Belgium?
No premeditated planned murder no qatari would go scot free no matter who the victim was. Clearly your just bored and want a basless argument. Not playing having a nice weekend
Not looking for a baseless argument, and I would hope and expect for things to go as you state as well. But there is always this nagging feeling, from previous experiences. Wish you a nice weekend as well.
Murder is a crime whatever way you put it, and believe it or not this is NOT a jungle.
Qatar is a state where LAW has to be respected if you are Qatari, Indian or whatever.
really???
Yes really.
what previous experiences are those… any relevant ones?
Unless I am mistaken the previous experience you are alluding to is not premeditated
Nope, you are right. Not premeditated.
What previous experiences are those?
a qatari man got sentenced to death for murder so no i dont think they would go scot free
Is that really what you have to say? Go sleep
See, comments like yours just encourages people to say things like: make it a Qatari diplomat to India who kills an old Pakistani lady, and you’d have a more plausible scenario. Or he could just gang rape her on a bus, and get away with it, just like everyone else. Now, is what you want people to say?
A good weekend to you as well 😉
A Qatari gardener in Pakistan?
You mean a woman killing a man 😉 Or are you just trolling!
I agree with you completely. No matter what line of business you are in, we all have “difficult” customers, and as mature adults we need to deal with that angst in an appropriate way (murder not being one of them obviously). I’m actually so impressed to read that the brother of the victim had apologized to this guy; you would have thought that would have made the guy feel vindicated ( I doubt many gardeners in this country, or any country for that matter get many apologies) but instead he plots to murder an elderly lady?? That just isn’t right.
I know from a friend of the family that the lady did not seem to be in a perfect mental state. So it makes the anger of this gardener surprising. She had told her brother that he threatened to kill her, but the family thought it was just angry words from the guy and didn’t think much of it.
Did you see slaves started retaliating???
Pretty nasty and it seemed he admitted it in court. Let’s hope justice is swiftly applied in this case and the man spends the rest of his life behind bars.
Spend his rest of life behind bars? That intentional killing, he should be awarded with nothing by a death sentence.
If he committed this murder then he should be sentenced as per the law. But I disagree with the process. Was he forced to give this confession since no legal representation has been appointed. It brings up alot of questions. Why was no legal representation appointed from the day of his arrest ? And what use is a public defendant if he has already confessed ? Just on top of my head … He works in a farm…but on that specific day…. he waited for hours before ambushing her. How far is the farm from the home of this lady ? Could it be that because of the incident where she threw food at him; he became the prime suspect ? Was compensation given as said by the brother of the victim ? Was illegal methods used to extract this confession out of him ? The fact that the article says he had gardening gloves also seems to me like a preempted step taken by the authorities to denote that they did not find any proof he was there. I cannot help but to also pity this man since he could have been tortured to admit to a crime he did not do. Since he is from Pakistan and the victim a local…I can imagine his treatment since his arrest. Too many holes in this story.
My sincere condolences to the family of the poor lady who has died suddenly. As an ex Homicide Detective in Australia, I also share the concerns of Win.
Very valid concerns; thank you so much for sharing. To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t even thought about the things you have mentioned. I suppose I am naive… I read an article stating he confessed and I immediately hate him, and I didn’t even think about the holes.
Its not that you are naive…its normal to immediately feel sympathy for the victim who is elderly and anger towards the accused. Its human nature. I have just come to know of may cases where people are falsely accused of crimes they did not commit just because they are disadvantaged from the start and become the likely scapegoat. I condemn the crime and will too ask for the accused to be sentenced to the full extent of the law but my caveat is that due process based on proper investigation be undertaken. After all…everyone deserves the right to a fair trail and proper representation.
Well said Win. Due process, proper investigation, fair trial and proper representation are basic human rights as far as I’m concerned. Although I know not all countries agree with such values. I can’t help but think about the Huang’s case as I type this, although many others also come to mind as well.
It’s either bad reporting, poor communication in court, or a questionable justice process.
It’s sad that the initial reaction in Qatar to such cases is now almost always a deep suspicion of the judicial process.
My condolences to the victim’s family.
I’m not sure about how such a case would be handled legally; however, I have often noticed that in our part of the world, there are many cases where a person commits murder to avenge a personal insult, and them calmly goes to the authorities to confess their crime. Maybe he didn’t want legal representation in this case.
I agree that in this part of the world…killing someone for the sake of one’s honour does occur. But allow me to point out why what you say might not be the case of the accused not wanting legal representation. I quote ” During the confession on Monday, the defendant had no legal counsel, but a public defender is expected to be appointed to him”. Why appoint one when if he does not want one ? And in addition…according Ahmed A below…a friend of the family told him that the victim was not mentally sound and accused the gardener of threatening to kill her. This just bring about more questions then answers. Was the threat after she threw food at him or from another time ? Is he now arrested and probably forced to confess to a crime based on the alleged conversation between a mentally unstable lady and her brother. And I find it funny that a brother or allow me to be blunt…a local would tolerate a Pakistani threatening his sister and brush it aside as angry words from a person. What do you think ? Or the brother brushed it aside because his sister might have a history of making up stories ? These are just questions that can be raised. Last but not least…as much as I hate to bring this up; but for the sake of being transparent; what si the background of this family ? Does the lady have any immediate family of her own ? Husband…children ? How long has she been unwell ? Who benefits from her death ? These are areas which must be looked at. We live in a world where people murder for many reasons and a killer can be anyone from a psychopath to a sibling. The authorities cannot exclude such a possibility. In your opinion…do you think they even cared to investigate these angles ? Highly unlikely. I am not defending the crime…I am defending the rights of the accused and the need for a proper investigation and not just guilty based on hearsay, confession under duress and bias perception.
And last but not least…the crime occurred last month; if I am to consider your arguement on how such killings occur and then the murderer calmly goes to the authorities to confess…why has it taken so long for it to come to court ? Its not like there are murders going on in Qatar every other day. The dots just donot connect.
Having experienced the Qatari judicial system and spending time in a Qatari jail I know first hand from other prisoners that confessions are attained through torture. I will never forget the pictures a Sudanese prisoner drew whilst documenting his experiences being in jail. The most shocking were the pictures showing how he was tortured to make a confession. It consisted of him having his feet and hands tied, hanging from the ceiling on a rod whilst the CID beat him with sticks and whips. I have little doubts these where actual experiences as he was always drawing something from day to day experiences. They also included drawings I witnessed myself such as the german shepards going through cells at night to intimidate the prisoners and an all in brawl where the Syrians ripped off all the hose pipes from the toilets to fight against the Pakistanis who were pushing in in the food line. Another picture he drew depicted how his wife tried to bring a bible to him but was rejected at the reception desk of the capital police.
From my own personal experience of being falsely accused and acquitted of rape, the police do very little investigating and rely heavily on the confession. I was lied to by the police when first interviewed and told that they had a medical document stating that I raped a student, which was absolutely ridiculous. In court there was no further mention of this document.
if you don’t mind me asking, why did this person falsely accuse you of rape?
A 9 year old student from one of my PE lessons developed a facial rash over the first 3 weeks of school. Her family asked her over this time why she had a rash on her face in which she could not explain the reason for it. The father took a picture of the rash in the first week, never took her to a doctor to get it checked out. In the third week of asking her why she had a rash they arranged for her speak to her aunty for 4 hours and that is when the accusation was first established (all stated in police statements). Another reason why I have little faith in the police’s investigative abilities.
Maybe I’m slow but I don’t understand the correlation between the rash and rape? Are you saying the aunt is the reason for the accusation. *confused*
I was accused of first violently kissing her causing her face rash and then sexually abusing her over a three week time period. The father jumped to conclusion of what could have caused it then eventually arranged a meeting with the aunty which took 4 hours of questioning. I can only imagine the type of leading questions asked by the aunty.
If all the facts are true then he must be crazy, to plan to kill someone and go through with it after one bad incident, especially after the actual employer apologized and offer to compensate
Is the Pakistani the real killer?
Her behavior towards him was not good and hence he took the step…If this is true, ok fine but he should not have killed her…But i ask one question…Why do people behave in this manner with a poor person..Does a poor person like the gardener have no self respect in society and can behave with him in any manner you like…looking at her behavior i appeal to the family of the victim to please for…give him as he is poor and need to look after his family…respect is gained thru respect and not thru odd behavior..All are human beings in the end and the same human being which the almighty god has created
who else would have done the crime?
We need to understand that people away from family for a long time, harsh working condition, no motivation, working to feed family back home or pay accumulated loans, arguments with family and friends resulted in anger. On may occasions certain individual keep insult in their mind and wait for opportunist to level score. It can happen with anyone even in high level executives. I am not aware of law but basic relation of giving jail terms is providing an opportunity to an individual to overcome problems. There is a good amount of history available where individual became good citizen after coming out of jail. I believe in legal system of Qatar and Legal Counsel help can be obtained using embassy.