Supreme Court finds scientist Serik Eliby not guilty of wife’s murder by reason of mental incompetence

AN INTERNATIONAL expert in genetically modified crops bashed his wife to death with a dumbbell so she could be “free”, psychiatric reports reveal.

Serik Eliby, 53, who is accused of murdering his wife Ainur Ismagul at their Klemzig home on February 16.

AN INTERNATIONAL expert in genetically modified crops bashed his wife to death with a dumbbell so she could be “free”, psychiatric reports reveal.

Serik Eliby, 54, had been charged with one count of murder over the death of his wife, Ainur Ismagul, who was also a respected scientist, at the couple’s Thistle Ave, Klemzig, home in February last year.

He appeared in the Supreme Court on Thursday, where Justice Anne Bampton found the objective elements of the crime had been proved, but ruled Eliby not guilty because he was mentally incompetent at the time.

In reports to the court, psychiatric experts found Eliby was suffering from bipolar II disorder and had been delusional at the time of his offending, because he was depressed about losing his job.

Dr Jules Begg said Eliby believed his children would starve because he had no income.

He said Eliby did not improve when Ms Ismagul found him a job overseas. On the day of her death they had argued about her attempts to get a visa for him to work in Kazakhstan.

Later that night, Eliby’s wife “uncharacteristically drank a full bottle of wine”. Tests later showed she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.144.

Eliby told the psychiatrists that Ms Ismagul had threatened her own suicide on the night.

“She was quite distraught, saying ‘I don’t want to live anymore, please kill me”,” Dr Begg said.

“He went and took the dumbbells, which were nearby, and hit her in the head several times.”

Eliby had told Dr Begg “she was asking for it, she was suffering, it was my way to protect her so the stress and problems would resolve”.

Two hours later, Eliby answered the door to police and told them: “I smashed the head of my wife”.

Dr Begg said Eliby had not been able to understand the wrongfulness of his actions and “could not separate killing his wife from killing himself”.

Ainur Ismagul, 55, was found dead at her Klemzig home on Monday, February 16 last year.

Eliby and Ms Ismagul, 55, were born and studied in Kazakstan and have presented papers at international conferences, as well as having their work published in respected scientific journals.

They lived and worked in plant research around the globe in countries including Ukraine, Canada, Germany and Hungary before settling in Adelaide.

The couple had been working at the Urrbrae-based Australian Centre of Plant Functional Genomics, of which one of the shareholders is the University of Adelaide, since 2006 where their focus was on wheat crops.

In a separate report tendered to the court, Dr Paul Furst said Eliby felt weak and exhausted so had not taken his own life, but believed he was setting his wife “free”.

“He lacked insight to understand his beliefs were delusional,” he said.

Justice Bampton found Eliby mentally incompetent to commit the alleged offence.

“I find the defendant not guilty of the offence of murder but declare the defendant to be liable for supervision,” she said.

Justice Bampton ordered Eliby, who is currently held at James Nash House, be held in a secure mental health facility for life.

Eliby, dressed in a dark suit and striped tie, was assisted by a Russian interpreter as he sat calmly through the hearing.

The matter will return to court in March for further submissions.

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