Murder trial of Irishman begins in Panama

Lawyers for an Irishman accused of stabbing his best friend to death in Panama two years ago entered a plea of not guilty last…

Lawyers for an Irishman accused of stabbing his best friend to death in Panama two years ago entered a plea of not guilty last night.

Mr Peter Byrne (35) from Cork, has been held in a psychiatric hospital since he stabbed his childhood friend Max Conroy to death at Conroy's Panama City apartment in July 1999.

Mr Byrne stood with his head bowed as the Supreme Court magistrate read out murder charges last night, detailing how Mr Conroy died after being stabbed 16 times in the neck and thorax.

"Everyone knows Peter Byrne committed the crime," Ms Edna Ramos, the defendant's lawyer, told Reuters. "We are looking for a jury verdict to declare Peter innocent on grounds of insanity".

READ MORE

Ms Ramos said a panel of nine psychiatrists who examined Mr Byrne during his detention, including five appointed by the state, determined he was suffering from acute paranoid psychosis at the time of the killing.

Engineering lecturer Mr Byrne flew to Panama to visit Mr Conroy two days before the killing after attending a conference in the United States. The two men had been friends for more than 20 years.

Mr Byrne admitted the killing in prosecution testimony read to the court yesterday, saying he feared Mr Conroy intended to feed him to an alligator or throw him from a balcony window in Mr Conroy's high-rise apartment.

Ms Ramos said if the court finds Mr Byrne innocent of murder charges, he would be returned to Ireland completely free.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Panama City, which is representing Mr Byrne's interests in the absence of an Irish diplomatic mission, said Mr Byrne would be eligible for transfer to Ireland to serve out his sentence if found guilty.