KINGSTON: Court ready to try dead man (From Haringey Independent)

KINGSTON: Court ready to try dead man

8:19am Monday 13th October 2008 in News By Alita Howe

Kingston Magistrates’ Court turned into a farce when officials couldn’t prove a man who died after setting himself alight in Surbiton was dead.

Barmak Karimi, 39, died in the early hours of September 13 from severe burns, after starting a fire in his Brighton Road flat.

Several people had to be rescued from the blaze and five flats were left uninhabitable.

Karimi was due to have been sentenced at Kingston Magistrates’ Court on September 18 after admitting assaulting his wife Fatemah Shafie-Abady on August 21.

The case was re-listed on October 9 and magistrates were told the court had been made aware that Karimi had died on September 16.

Despite this magistrates heard last week that in order for the Crown Prosecution Service to be able to dismiss the proceedings against Karimi, a valid death certificate had to be produced.

After frantic calls to his last known solicitors, the court was unable to gather sufficient proof that Karimi had died and the case was put back to be dealt with again this Thursday.