Two men convicted of manslaughter by recklessness over the 2023 death of 27-year-old Zain Kaiyum will be sentenced on December 2. Abdul Imran Feroz Mohammed and Israel Daniel Adonai appeared before High Court Judge Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu in Suva today for their sentencing hearing. Both men remain in custody. They were earlier found guilty of aiding and abetting the principal offender, 42-year-old construction worker Daniel O’Brien Lal, in assaulting Kaiyum, being reckless as to the risk that their conduct would cause him serious harm.
The case stems from a brutal sequence of assaults on May 29, 2023, after a packet of methamphetamine (ice) went missing following a drug deal at Kaiyum’s Nasinu residence. The court heard that Lal instructed a driver to take him and his co-accused to the home. When informed that customers had stolen the illicit substance, Lal ordered his associates to force Kaiyum into a vehicle. Kaiyum was held against his will and subjected to prolonged torture and repeated physical assaults across multiple locations, including Makoi, Tovata, and Naidiridiri Settlement.
He was punched, kicked, and beaten with a police boot and a TV wire while Lal demanded payment for the missing drugs. Police later recovered Kaiyum wrapped in a mat at Lal’s residence, heavily bruised, unresponsive, and in his undergarments, after being alerted by a resident. He was admitted to the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital Intensive Care Unit and succumbed to severe traumatic head injuries over a month later, on July 2, 2023. Lal was previously sentenced on July 29 after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Meanwhile, a former police canine officer, Jone Mataitoga, was acquitted and discharged of the same charge after Justice Bulamainaivalu ruled the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he participated in the fatal assaults.
