Schizophrenic father who slashed son’s throat let out

Aliya Zilic slit the throat of his three-year-old son Imran (pictured) and dumped his body down a mine shaft in outback South Australia in 2008

A schizophrenic father who slit the throat of his three-year-old son and dumped his body down a mine shaft in outback Australia will be released into the community.

Aliya Zilic was ordered to be detained indefinitely in an Adelaide mental health facility in 2010 over the 2008 killing of his son Imran in South Australia.

He was found not guilty of murder because of mental incompetence and will now be allowed to go on 24 excursions under the supervision of two corrections officers with the approval of the Supreme Court.

It was ruled that Zilic was suffering mental impairment at the time he cut his son’s throat at the end of a ‘bizarre odyssey’ through Australia’s outback from Perth.

After killing his son, Zilic drove through the Northern Territory and into Western Australia, and when he was arrested by police denied involvement in the murder because he believed they were the devil.  

He was found not guilty of murder because of mental incompetence and could now be allowed to go on 24 excursions under the supervision of two corrections officers.

The Supreme Court was told doctors treating Zilic wanted him to have the opportunity to show that he could return to the community.

A new supervision order proposed up to 24 outings with two guards and then another 24 with one staff. 

Zilic (left) was ordered to be detained indefinitely in an Adelaide mental health facility in 2010 over the 2008 killing of his son

Zilic (left) was ordered to be detained indefinitely in an Adelaide mental health facility in 2010 over the 2008 killing of his son

Zilic was found not guilty of the murder of his son (pictured) because of mental incompetence

Zilic was found not guilty of the murder of his son (pictured) because of mental incompetence

'(Zilic) said Allah's name and dropped him in a shaft,' prosecutor Jim Pearce reportedly said during the trial

‘(Zilic) said Allah’s name and dropped him in a shaft,’ prosecutor Jim Pearce reportedly said during the trial

Zilic was detained in 2010 after Justice Margaret Nyland ruled that he was suffering mental impairment at the time he cut his son’s throat. 

Zilic’s psychosis ‘obliterated any sense of what he had done and what he was doing’, his lawyer Bronwen Waldron said.

During the trial, prosecutors claimed Zilic was a drug addict and that he believed his ex-wife was ‘working for the devil’ and ‘possessed by demons’, The Advertiser reported.

Zilic told police his son was in the hands of God, the court heard. 

‘[Zilic] said Allah’s name and dropped him in a shaft,’ prosecutor Jim Pearce said, according to the paper. 

After the killing, Zilic returned to a dugout in Coober Pedy, about 800km north of Adelaide, where he had been staying with his son. 

After the killing, Zilic returned to a dugout in Coober Pedy (street view of the outback town pictured), about 800km north of Adelaide, where he had been staying with his son

After the killing, Zilic returned to a dugout in Coober Pedy (street view of the outback town pictured), about 800km north of Adelaide, where he had been staying with his son

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