PARANOID YOUTH POSES DILEMMA FOR FAMILY

MAKKAH: Who is responsible for protecting society against crimes committed by mentally unstable people? Is it the police or the health authorities, especially when the sick people are not held responsible for their criminal acts? This issue came to light recently when a young man here beat up his father and got away with it because he was diagnosed to be suffering from paranoia. The hospital will not admit him and the police will not detain him so he was given back to his family and may commit more heinous crimes.

An old man came recently to the Khulais police station in Makkah complaining that his son had brutally beaten him. The police arrested the young man and sent him under guard to the psychiatric clinic, which referred him to the Shariah Medical Committee in Taif, which deals with homicidal cases.

After examining him, the committee wrote a report exonerating the youth of any criminal responsibility and sent him to Makkah police who saw no reason to keep him because he was not responsible for his actions and so could not be charged. Therefore the police did not hesitate to hand him over to his family, despite strong warnings in the report that this young man might commit other crimes because of his disturbed mental state.

Arab News, which investigated the case, learned that the unidentified young man was suffering from psychological disturbances that were not unknown to his family, the police and the health authorities.

When asked to comment on the issue, the director of psychological health at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Makkah, Dr. Tarik Al-Bar, said the patient was referred to the Shariah Medical Committee in Taif where all such cases are referred.

He described paranoia to be one of the most serious mental diseases and said those suffering from it may commit the worst of crimes without realizing what they are doing.

The police press spokesman, Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Maiman, said the medical authorities to which the patient was referred had the right either to confine him to hospital or send him back to the police who have no other option in this case but to hand the patient over to his family.

He explained that admission to hospital is the sole right of the hospital itself or the medical committee, not the police. “This whole matter concerns the health authorities alone and not the police,” he said.

The director of the Psychological Health Hospital in Taif, Dr. Rajab Brisali, said the patient was referred by the Makkah police to determine his health condition and decide his mental responsibility. After the examination, the patient was sent back to where he came from with a recommendation to treat him in his city recalling that there are psychological clinics in all prisons in the Kingdom which are directly supervised by the Health Ministry.

The director of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Makkah, Ahmed Al -Ghamdi, said the police and the health authorities were not responsible for the crimes committed by this patient but they should not have left him free to commit more crimes.

He, however, warned that the police and the health authorities might be held responsible by the Shariah court if the family, who was obliged to take him back, could not restrain him and prevent him from committing more crimes.