Fed: Psychiatrist says Yilmaz in dissociative state

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2000
Fed: Psychiatrist says Yilmaz in dissociative state

A court has heard that a man accused of murdering a Saudi diplomat in a frenzied stabbing
attack may have believed he was confronting a demon.

Sydney man RIZA YILMAZ, who is 29, has told the ACT Supreme Court he remembers nothing
after bursting into ABDULLAH AL-GHAMDI'S Canberra apartment and seeing the diplomat shouting
and holding a knife.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr FINLAY JONES, a defence witness, has told the court Mr AL-GHAMDI
would have presented an extremely threatening figure.

YILMAZ believed Mr AL-GHAMDI was harassing his girlfriend and had burned her with cigarettes.

Dr JONES has told the court he thinks YILMAZ believed he was confronting some kind
of demon, an extremely threatening figure and his mind stopped working altogether.

Dr JONES said he believed YILMAZ, who had a long history of hypertension and anxiety,
went into a dissociative state called non-insane automatism.

YILMAZ has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr AL-GHAMDI, the first secretary of the
Saudi embassy, on October 13, 1998.

Mr AL-GHAMDI was stabbed 36 times and shot once with an air gun.

YILDIZ today attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter but Justice TERENCE HIGGINS
did not accept the plea.

The trial is continuing.

AAP RTV mb/mfh/wz/jn

KEYWORD: DIPLOMAT (CANBERRA)

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