Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — The story of a mentally ill Saudi citizen who stabbed an Indian worker to death in Riyadh in broad daylight while onlookers were busy taking pictures of the incident instead of stopping him had stirred a lot of controversy. The incident has been widely debated by Saudi society with many blaming the hospital that treated the man. People have asked who was responsible for this incident. A report, published by Al-Hayat newspaper on Thursday, said the hospital was not to be absolved of responsibility even though it claimed it could not handle more than 200 patients while Riyadh reportedly has more than 10,000 schizophrenic residents. What makes the justifications of the hospital unacceptable, said Al-Hayat, is that it has a long history of violations. On several occasions it had reportedly refused to accept mentally ill people or discharged patients who still posed a real threat to society. Mohammed Al-Wihaib, a professor of criminology at King Saud University in Riyadh, said there may well be above 30,000 schizophrenic patients in the city, making it difficult for the police to watch them. He described the security presence in Riyadh as "reasonable" but said the murder of the Indian worker could not have been prevented. "It is not possible to put policemen on every street," he added. Al-Wihaib said the police could have prevented the crime if they had enough information about the murderer and his mental condition. "The short time during which the crime was committed would not have given the police or onlookers the opportunity to save the victim," he said. He called for closely watching mentally ill people and also for asking district mayors to stay vigilant for people displaying unusual behaviors. Al-Wihaib called for planting cameras on all streets in big cities to monitor the behavior of people and prevent any possible crimes. Society has often debated whether criminals are always mentally ill. Social commentators claimed Saudi society finds it difficult to believe that a sane Saudi can commit murder in broad daylight while many people are around. The killing of the Indian worker in Al-Suwaidi neighborhood, which was full of people and cars, raised the question of why onlookers did not move to save the victim instead of documenting the crime. Some people believed the onlookers had no sense of humanity while others said they were chasing a big media scoop. Dr. Abdullah Al-Salim, a psychiatrist, did not see anything wrong with spectators filming the incident. "The onlookers were afraid that the killer might go after them too," he said. He said the Health Ministry is responsible for providing medical treatment to mentally ill people while the police are responsible for watching them after they are discharged from hospital. He said families of the mentally ill have a great responsibility to inform the police about them if they suspect that they may be dangerous to other people.
