Obaida's convicted killer claims he had attempted suicide

Dubai - Nidal Eissa Abdullah asked the court to check medical files on his mental health which he claimed to show he was mentally unstable.

The convicted killer of an 8-year-old child asked the Court of Appeals on Sunday to check medical files on his mental health which he claimed to show he was mentally unstable and that he had attempted suicide.   
In Sunday's hearing, the court adjourned the trial to January 8 after it received a hospital's mental evaluation report of the 48-year-old Jordanian defendant Nidal Eissa Abdullah, sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of Obaida.  (Read: Obaida murder case takes a new turn)
The defendant is being represented by advocate Ali Musabbeh who earlier requested that his client be referred to hospital to be examined by psychiatrists to assess how responsible and aware of his actions Abdullah was at the time he committed the crime.   
Abdullah earlier admitted to charges of murder and consuming of alcohol.  
Background: Missing Sharjah boy found dead in Dubai 
He denied, however, charges of sexually assaulting the victim, Obaida, also from Jordan, and kidnapping him from outside his parents' house in Sharjah.
In August, a bench of the Dubai Court of First Instance unanimously sentenced Abdullah to death after convicting him of sexually assaulting and killing the child. The case dates back to May 20 when the child was reported missing from outside his parents' house and his body was found two days later on the side of a road in Al Warqa. mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai