Britain: Young Man Detained for Attempting to Set Worshippers Ablaze
British authorities issued a decision yesterday, Wednesday, to detain a man in a hospital indefinitely, convicted of attempted murder after deliberately setting fire to two elderly men as they left mosques in Britain.
Mohammed Abukar from Edgbaston in Birmingham, central Britain, set fire intentionally to Haji Oudowa (82 years old) and Mohammed Riyadh (70 years old) in February and March of last year, according to Agence France-Presse.
A Birmingham court convicted Abukar, a Sudanese national, of attempted murder last year.
Judge Melbourne Inman told Abukar, who suffers from schizophrenia and believes he is under the control of possessed individuals, “You poured petrol on your victims and then set them alight… The attacks were horrific.”
The judge added, as Abukar watched proceedings via video link from the heavily guarded Ashworth Hospital in northwest Britain, “The choice of victims in this case was random, without any rational basis.”
He continued, “Nevertheless, you genuinely believed that each of them was one of those who was trying to control you.”
Concluding, he said, “I am entirely satisfied that you committed these two crimes at a time when you were suffering from severe mental illness.”
Abukar sprayed petrol on the two men near mosques and then set fire to them.
The attacks took place in west London on February 27 and Birmingham on March 20. Oudowa, who was attacked in London, suffered severe burns to his face and arms, while Riyadh’s injuries were serious.
