JEDDAH, 2 June 2006 — Four Pakistanis have been found guilty of murdering a retired Saudi colonel in a village situated to the west of Madinah, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
The Madinah High Court found Shah Baksh, 35, Mazhar Hassan, 34, Ejaz, 34, and Muhammad Hussein, 33, guilty of murdering Col. Daher Al-Orwi Al-Johani, 72, in May last year. The men were also found guilty of stealing valuables and money worth SR70,000 from the retired colonel’s house in the village of Mulaileeh.
Two of the men had been working for the ex-colonel for quite some time and had denied any involvement in the crime. A fifth man, who had helped the four hide in his house before they committed the crime, was handed a 10-year hard labor sentence.
The four men will be put on death row and will be punished only after the Cassation Court gives its approval to the high court verdict.
Police launched a manhunt in Makkah, Jeddah and Qassim and managed to make the arrests shortly after the crime. Baksh was arrested hiding in a sheep pen close to Mulaileeh two days after the crime while Mazhar had tried to avoid police arrest by presenting himself to the Passport Department in Jeddah posing as an overstayer. Another accused disguised himself as a Saudi but was caught in the precincts of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
According to sources the men broke into the colonel’s house and strangled him to death. The men then tied and gagged terrified family members before fleeing with stolen property and money.
After the verdict was delivered one of the accused said he had no complaints about the sentence. Col. Al-Johani was a popular figure among local people in Mulaileeh and was not known to have any enemies.
Meanwhile, police are looking for a Saudi man who shot dead two hunters in cold-blood and injured a boy when they passed by his farm near the town of Dawadimi situated around 200 kilometers west of Riyadh.
Cousins Zain ibn Abdullah Al-Azami, a police sergeant, and Muhammad ibn Badr Al-Azami were hunting birds with two youngsters when they passed by a farm owned by the alleged killer Bandar Khalaf Al-Hozaimi. One of the boys told police that near the farm an armed man, Al-Hozaimi, shouted at them demanding to know why they had gone close to his farm. When Muhammad ibn Badr got out of the car to explain that they were out hunting the farmer shot him with his gun.
On seeing what was happening Zain got out of the car to run to Muhammad’s aid only to be shot in the chest dead. Al-Hozaimi then came closer to Muhammad and repeatedly shot him to ensure he was dead.
Having witnessed what had happened the two terrified youngsters tried to run away. Al-Hozaimi shot the eldest one injuring him and then tried to run over the younger one in his car. The boy ran to some nearby hills and managed to raise the alarm.
