Saudi Student Gets Prison for Killing NY Professor [on Richard Antoun]

A graduate student from Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for stabbing a university professor to death in upstate New York.

Abdulsalam al-Zahrani had pleaded guilty in May to first-degree manslaughter for killing Binghamton University professor Richard Antoun. Prosecutors said the 48-year-old al-Zahrani had come to believe Antoun was part of a plot against him and attacked the professor in his office in 2009.

After his arrest, psychiatric experts determined al-Zahrani was schizophrenic but mentally competent to stand trial.

The 77-year-old Antoun was an emeritus professor of anthropology and expert on Middle East cultures. Prosecutors said he had helped al-Zahrani with his studies for years.

A court official says Al-Zahrani was sentenced Friday. He’s expected to be deported to Saudi Arabia after his release from prison.

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