Friday, Nov 16, 2012
SAUDI ARABIA - He is known as a prominent scholar in Saudi Arabia who often preached on various local television channels.
He has now been accused of torturing his five-year-old daughter, Lamaa, to death.
She died in an intensive care unit of a hospital near the Saudi capital Riyadh a few days ago, after weeks of suffering from broken arms, a skull fracture and head bruises, her mother told Al Arabiya, an online news portal which covers the Arab world.
"He used all sorts of torture and abuse against Lamaa," the girl's mother, now divorced from her husband, told the website.
US news portal Huffington Post quoted Saudi website Emirates 24/7 as saying that the girl's father, with the "help of his new wife", had allegedly tortured the child with "sticks and hot metals".
The hospital medical report indicated that the child was also tortured with "whips and electric shocks".
The mother explained that after she was divorced she had an "agreement" with her former husband regarding the daughter they shared.
Recently, he took his daughter for two weeks as agreed, but he never brought her back, the mother said, adding that she was surprised to receive a call from the public prosecutor asking her to go the hospital.
She said: "I was shocked and could not believe what happened to Lamaa when I saw her.
"I could not believe that there is no mercy in people's hearts."
