November 27-2015
An Iranian refugee who stabbed his wife’s exhusband to death in Australia most likely has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), his sentencing hearing was told last week.
Kazem Mohammadi-Payam, 36, pleaded guilty last week to murdering Nabil Naser, 41, at a busy Sydney shopping center in July last year. The guilty plea was a sudden shift after a year of proclaiming his innocence.
The two men arranged to meet to sort out an ongoing dispute, which was not explained in court.
At 9:47 a.m. on July 7, security cameras captured Payam going into a Woolworth’s and buying a knife, which he hid up the sleeve of his jacket before meeting Naser.
Onlookers who saw the men sitting and talking on lounge chairs near the entrance to a department store said they appeared to be talking amicably at first, as though they knew each other well.
But at 10:35 A.M., Payam suddenly grabbed Naser, threw him to the floor and repeat-edly stabbed him in front of frightened school holiday shoppers. The footage shows Payam stabbing Naser at least four times.
Payam then sits, before resuming the attack, this time stabbing Naser twice. In the next 10 minutes before police arrived, Payam continues to intermittently attack Naser’s unmoving body. At one point, after lighting a cigarette, he appears to kick Naser.
At another point, he took off his shirt and called his wife on his cellphone, saying: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I love you. My life is over now.”
The wife, Neda Esmaili, and both men were all immigrants to Australia from Iran.
In a sentencing hearing in the state Supreme Court of New South Wales Friday, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Olav Nielsson said Payam probably had post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Nielsson said Payam might have also been suffering from a psychotic illness when he killed Naser, although it was hard to say as he was now being treated with anti-psychotic medication.
In one consultation, Payam spoke of hearing “voices” telling him to take the knife, but in a later consultation Payam said he couldn’t remember this.
Payam said he had been jailed in Iran for being a member of a Kurdish political party and had been tortured and placed in solitary confinement.
His sister, Shahnaz, corroborated the story and this experience could explain the PTSD, Dr. Nielsson said.
But he could not discern from Payam a reason for “what looks like a completely irrational action.”
After his arrest, Payam told police he had been a soldier and was trained to use a knife.
He said he hadn’t intended to kill Naser, but that he had bought the knife on the “spur of the moment” so he could frighten his victim if necessary. “I swear to God that I didn’t want to kill him. I don’t know what happened. He provoked me, said very rude things.”
In the months before the killing, Naser had complained to both his family and the police that Payam had made death threats. At one point, Naser told the police Payam had warned him, “Nabil, you know me; I kill.”