A mentally ill asylum seeker who killed his sleeping flatmate and stabbed another man with a steak knife has been found not guilty of murder.
Javad Heydari was living with four other men in a two-bedroom unit in Berala, in Sydney's southwest, when he carried out the attacks in the early hours of September 5, 2013.
He fatally stabbed Mohammed Ali Nabizada and yelled "I f*** the mothers and sisters of everyone", court documents state.
He then turned on Rauf Hassani and stabbed him in the abdomen, lacerating his liver.
Mr Hassani underwent surgery and survived the attack.
On Friday Acting Justice Jane Mathews found Heydari not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.
The Supreme Court heard the 37-year-old had arrived in Australia by boat from Afghanistan earlier in 2013 and was living in the community on a conditional visa.
According to court documents, about a week before the attack, he had asked his victims to help him look for a job but they had refused as his visa banned him from working.
He had also been prescribed antidepressants and sedatives by a local GP, who noted his history of "insomnia, depressed mood, low self-esteem" and irrationality.
When police searched the men's flat they found a handwritten letter addressed to God among Heydari's belongings, facts tendered to court state.
"Even though I have become insane, I did not reach my goals, my hands are tied cannot reach anywhere," Heydari is said to have written in the Dari language.
"I was hoping to get somewhere, but I did not get there ... I wished for my own death, not wishing for someone else's life."
In interviews with police on the morning of the attacks, Heydari did not deny stabbing his flatmates but said: "I am not right in the head, I take medication for the sickness in my head."
He later claimed he wanted to kill Mr Nabizada and Mr Hassani because they had assaulted him on a previous night.
Mr Hassani has categorically denied this, facts state.
Two doctors who examined Heydari "are of the view that the accused did not know, in the relevant sense, that what he did was morally wrong".
His matter will return to court later this month.
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