Man confesses to accidental killing of Syrian refugee toddler in Kurdistan: Police
A man who allegedly killed a young boy by accidentally hitting him with a car and then fleeing the scene at a refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region confessed to the crime on Monday, a police spokesperson said.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A man who allegedly killed a young boy by accidentally hitting him with a car and then fleeing the scene at a refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region confessed to the crime on Monday, a police spokesperson said.
The child, identified only as Mustafa, was a Syrian Kurd whose parents became alarmed one day in late March when he did not return to their home in Barika camp, located 23 kilometers southeast of central Sulaimani city. Shortly afterward, the boy’s family lodged a missing person's complaint with local authorities in the town of Arbat.
In a press conference on Thursday, Sulaimani Police Spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmed said that after two days of searching, police found the body of Mustafa at the side of the main road near the camp. They then launched an investigation into a possible vehicular hit-and-run.
On Aug. 9 after over four months of inquiry into the case, police arrested a man on charges of involvement in the death. The suspect was identified by his initials M. K. H. and is thought to have been the only individual in the car at the time of the accident.
“Arbat police continued with their investigations and found bloodstains, hair, and a piece of clothing in the car of the accused,” adding that the evidence collected is currently being tested to confirm that they belong to Mustafa.
The spokesman claimed that the suspect confessed in custody to having been responsible for the boy’s death and had recounted the events leading to and following the tragic death.
According to the reported confession, Mustafa was in front of his house when the car struck him. The driver then got out of the vehicle, and after seeing the boy's unmoving body, put it in his car's trunk and drove from the scene. M. K. H. said he initially began driving the boy to a hospital in a nearby town called Zarayan, but, “After he found out that the child was dead, he disposed the body just outside the camp.“
During the press conference, the police also displayed a picture of Mustafa at the time he was found by police. In it, he is seen in colorful pajamas, lying lifeless on a patch of grass at the side of the road.
The police added that the case was currently being heard in court.
Editing by John J. Catherine