Man receives 15 years in jail for murdering his father

Muscat: Oman’s Public Prosecution has revealed details of a case in which an expatriate man living in Oman was sentence to prison for 15 years for killing his father after attempting to unsuccessfully extort money from him for personal pleasure.
Both the son and father are Asian expats, and had become wealthy after setting up a restaurant and a water tanker business in the Sultanate. However, the father was extremely reluctant to share this money with his son, because the latter would spend any money given to him on vices.
Desperate to take his father’s money, the son came up with a plan to get rid of his father, seize the cash, and travel to Pakistan, so that he would not get caught. He had also lied to his father about his niece being taken by kidnappers back home, who were demanding an alleged ransom of OMR 3,000. His father, however, chose to ignore this tall tale.
The crime, which took place in 2018, was reported in the Public Prosecution’s quarterly magazine, and occurred in the area of Wadi Kabir, with a report first filed at Ruwi police station on 29 February 2018. Police officers were sent to the scene of crime – a restaurant in Wadi Kabir – where the victim lay in a pool of his own blood, and was immediately transferred to Khoula Hospital.
The son had beaten his father with an iron rod, the signs of which were clearly visible on his head and face. On the basis of the autopsy conducted and the nature of the injuries, forensic teams concluded that the man must've suffered repeated blows to the head. The perpetrator had entered the restaurant, and ordered his father to give him some money, under the threat of violence. To conceal his identity, the son had worn plastic bags over his head and arms.
The father, refusing to break under these threats, ordered his son to leave the restaurant and told his son he’d send him back to Pakistan. The son then hit him on the left side of his head, causing him to fall, and once he was on the floor, struck him twice on the back of the head. He then threw the iron rod with which he’d attacked his father, as well as the plastic bags, into a nearby wadi.
To avoid the presence of witnesses who could possibly uncover this heinous act and report it to the police, the son had told one of the restaurant workers to not come to work on that day, because he was planning to get rid of his father. This worker, who lived in the same accommodations as the father and son, thought he was joking. This restaurant employee did go to work that day, and was among the first to find the body of the victim, having initially wondered why there was blood on the floor. At this time, the son was at Wadi Kabir vegetable market with a colleague. On receiving the news of this death, both the perpetrator and his colleague rushed to the restaurant to find out more, although the son already knew what had taken place.
To piece together the identity of the perp, police began studying footage from around the time of the crime from CCTV cameras installed in shops near the restaurant. They were able to establish that it was the son who had attacked and subsequently murdered his father.
Under questioning from criminal investigation authorities, the restaurant employee said that there had been problems between the father and son. The second witness confirmed that the perpetrator had gone to Wadi Kabir vegetable market on the morning of the crime. In light of the statements given by witnesses, the perpetrator was confronted by the police.
He admitted he’d committed the crime, and said that his father had refused to give him a monthly salary or any other funds to cover his expenses, even when he’d asked for some to reportedly pay for his mother’s treatment to help her visual impairment. He’d also refused to apply for a residence card for his son, because he felt his son wasted all of his money on his friends and in the pursuit of pleasure.
Having completed their investigations, the man was presented before Public Prosecution, who found that the man had committed the crime while retaining full control of his faculties. The decision to imprison him for 15 years was reached on 2 July, 2019, by the Criminal Court for Prosecution, after commuting his initial sentence of the death penalty. According to Article 302/b of the Omani Penal Code, the sentence for the crime of premeditated murder is death. The accused will be deported from Oman once he has completed his sentence, and will be required to pay all the legal expenses.