Britain:A blind Muslim cleric was strangled by a man who later told police he had killed the "antichrist" and that it was judgment day, a court heard in London has been told.
Hamza Boutouil (25) attacked Maymoun Zarzour with an ornamental rope at Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London, last September, jurors at the Old Bailey were told yesterday. The imam, known as Sheikh Maymoun, was blind from a young age.
After the killing, as witnesses were giving descriptions to the police, Boutouil returned to the centre and was “raving”, the court heard.
“Among the things he was saying, which bystanders translated from Arabic so the police could understand, was that he had killed the antichrist and that by that he meant the imam, and that this was judgment day,” prosecutor Jonathan Turner QC said.
It is accepted that Boutouil killed Sheikh Maymoun but his defence claims that he was criminally insane at the time and should receive treatment. – (PA)