German Experts Deliver DNA Results in Sanaa Ripper Case

Published August 5th, 2000 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

A Yemeni court on Saturday received a report on DNA tests carried out by German experts in the "Sanaa Ripper" case, as the lawyer for an Iraqi victim's family sued for two million dollars in compensation. 

The tests took place on body parts and organs found at Sanaa University's faculty of medicine where a suspected serial killer, Mohammad Adam from Sudan, worked as a morgue attendant and victimized women students. 

A court official, Colonel Ali al-Hamdani, returned from Germany with the preliminary results and told judge Yehya al-Aslami that the full report would take at least another two weeks. 

Details of the report were not read out in court. 

Lawyer Abdel Aziz al-Baghdadi for Iraqi victim Zainab Massaud, meanwhile, filed for two million dollars in compensation for negligence from the faculty of medicine. 

The German experts have already said they discovered "in the morgue 21 complete bodies, two other mutilated bodies as well as dozens of body parts that could come from many different bodies". 

During the hearing, which followed a one-month break, the judge asked Mohammad Adam to confirm he had killed the young Iraqi woman. "Yes, I did, but I don't know for what motive," he replied. 

The defendant's lawyer, Mohammad al-Khatib, immediately called for his client to undergo psychiatric tests, but the judge turned down the request. 

Aslami instead ordered the president of Sanaa University and the dean of the faculty of medicine to appear in court at its next hearing on August 12th. 

The trial of Mohammad Adam opened on May 27th. 

Initially, he confessed to the rape and murder of 16 women at the university, but one of his supposed victims appeared in court on June 3rd and he retracted most of his confession, saying he had killed just two students, including Massaud. 

The German experts have also been commissioned by the state prosecutor and interior ministry to determine the number and sex of the victims, as well as the cause and date of their deaths - SANAA (AFP) 

© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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