JEDDAH, 12 May 2006 — A South Asian expatriate stabbed a Lebanese woman to death following a dispute between him and the woman’s husband in Al-Salam district in Jeddah on Wednesday, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday. Police are looking for the murderer while an investigation is under way.
According to sources, Bangladeshi worker Muhammad Habibullah accused his superior Ghassan Yakub, a Lebanese national, of deliberately delaying his vacation and trip to Bangladesh. Both the expatriates worked in a company that made kitchens. The accused claimed his vacation was overdue.
Around 1 p.m., when people had gone for noon prayers and shops were shuttered, Habibullah allegedly went up to Yakub’s house and knocked at the door with a knife hidden under his clothes. Yakub’s wife, who was in the Kingdom on a short visit to renew her residence visa, opened the door; her husband was standing behind her.
According to the report, Habibullah started to verbally abuse Yakub that triggered an exchange of hot words. Habibullah then allegedly lunged forward with the knife with the intention to stab Yakub. The Lebanese woman started screaming and stood between the two in a bid to defend her husband.
The stab intended for the man ended up landing in the woman’s torso. She fell on the floor bleeding profusely. Habibullah then allegedly stabbed again, injuring Yakub in the head, before fleeing the scene. Yakub then telephoned the police, the newspaper reported.
Osama Al-Haris, a neighbor of the victim, said he was coming from the street when he found Wahid, the Pakistani watchman at the building, very upset. He told Osama that a woman was murdered in the flat next to his.
Wahid said that when he returned from the mosque after prayers he found Yakub standing in front of the flat with blood all over his body. The man, he said, was waiting for police to take his wife to the hospital.
