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Man Accused Of Killing Stepdaughter To Get Mental Review

WARREN, Mich. (AP) -- A Minnesota man who police say killed his 20-year-old stepdaughter in Michigan because she left home and wasn't following Islam will get a mental evaluation.

The Detroit News reports a judge on Thursday approved the evaluation to determine whether 45-year-old Rahim Alfetlawi is competent for trial. He is charged with first-degree murder in the April 30 death of Jessica Mokdad at her grandmother's home in the Detroit suburb of Warren.

The Coon Rapids man told a judge in Warren that he suffers from mental issues stemming from "humiliation and torture" in Iraq in the 1990s under Saddam Hussein's regime.

Defense lawyer Richard Glanda says Alfetlawi claims the shooting was an accident.

Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo says Alfetlawi seems to have a "religious obsession rather than a psychological issue."

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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