WARREN, Mich., May 13 (UPI) -- A man accused in Michigan of killing his stepdaughter for defying Islamic ways and dress codes will get a psychiatric evaluation.
Rahim Alfetlawi, 45, of Coon Creek, Minn., told Warren District Court Judge Matthew Sabaugh Thursday he has mental problems caused by "humiliation and torture" in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, The Detroit News reported.
He is charged with first-degree murder and weapon counts in the April 30 killing of Jessica Mokdad, 20.
Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo said Alfetlawi seems to have a "religious obsession rather than a psychological issue. ... We welcome a competency evaluation."
Alfetlawi is to be examined at a forensic facility to determine his fitness for trial, and another hearing will take place within 90 days.
Warren police say he turned himself in after shooting Mokdad in the head inside her grandmother's home.
Alfetlawi's attorney, Richard Glanda, said the shooting occurred in a struggle and was "purely accidental." Cataldo disputed that.
Detective Stephen Mills said Mokdad returned to Michigan in April to live with her father after chafing under the rules of her mother and stepfather in Minnesota.
The mother converted to Islam in the 1990s while married to Mokdad's father.
