A
"celebrity" Saudi preacher accused of raping, torturing and killing
his five-year-old daughter has reportedly been released from custody after
agreeing to pay "blood money".
Fayhan al-Ghamdi
had been accused of killing his daughter Lama, who suffered multiple injuries
including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and
extensive bruising and burns. Social workers say she had also been repeatedly
raped and burnt.
Fayhan al-Ghamdi
admitted using a cane and cables to inflict the injuries after doubting his
five-year-old daughter’s virginity and taking her to a doctor, according to the
campaign group Women to Drive.
Rather than
getting the death penalty or receiving a long prison sentence for the crime,
Fayhan al-Ghamdi served only a few months in jail before a judge ruled the
prosecution could only seek "blood money".
Albawaba News
reported the judge as saying: "Blood money and the time the defendant had
served in prison since Lama's death suffices as punishment."
Fayhan al-Ghamdi,
who regularly appears on television in Saudi Arabia, is said to have agreed to
pay $46,934 to Lama’s mother.
The money is
considered compensation under Islamic law, although it is only half the amount
that would have been paid had Lama been a boy.
Despite Saudi
Arabia’s famously strict legal system, Women to Drive say fathers cannot be
executed for murdering their children in the country.
Equally, husbands
cannot be executed for murdering their wives.
Formal objections
to the ruling have been raised by three Saudi activists, and the twitter
hashtag #AnaLama (which translates as I Am Lama) has been set up.
Local reports say
public anger over the settlement is growing across Saudi Arabia, with
authorities planning to set up a 24-hour hotline to take calls about child
abuse.
Source:
www.independent.co.uk
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