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October 9, 2013

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Saudi preacher jailed for raping daughter, 5

A Saudi court has sentenced a preacher convicted of raping his five-year-old daughter and torturing her to death to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.

In a case that drew widespread public condemnation in the kingdom and abroad, the court also ordered Fayhan al-Ghamdi to pay his ex-wife, the girl’s mother, 1 million riyals (US$270,000) in “blood money,” lawyer Turki al-Rasheed said yesterday.

Blood money is compensation for the next of kin under Islamic law.

Ghamdi’s second wife, accused of taking part in the crime, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and 150 lashes, said Rasheed, who is lawyer for the girl’s mother.

Ghamdi was convicted of “raping and killing his five-year-old daughter Lama,” he added.

The girl was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2011 with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns. She died several months later.

Ghamdi, a regular guest on Muslim television networks despite not being an authorized cleric in Saudi Arabia, confessed to having used cables and a cane to inflict the injuries.

Randa al-Kaleeb, a social worker from the hospital where Lama was admitted, said the girl’s back was broken and that she had been raped “everywhere.”

Reportedly, Ghamdi had tortured and raped his daughter after he had doubted her virginity.

In ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, where rape and murder are among several crimes punishable by death, a father cannot be executed for murdering his children, nor can husbands be executed for murdering their wives.

Such crimes carry a jail sentence between five to 12 years.




 

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