Musleh Al-Harbi Okaz/Saudi Gazette MADINAH — A court in Madinah has sentenced a Saudi citizen to death for murdering a child and holding her sister hostage. The girls' father was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his complicity in the affair. The case goes back to 12 years ago when police stations in the city were receiving frequent complaints about heated arguments between a Saudi and his wife. The latest was four years ago when the wife complained to Al-Khaldiyah police station that her husband had kidnapped their daughters, and she did not notify the police because she was afraid he might harm the children. However, her husband denied the allegations. Investigators were successful in locating one of the girls whom the father hid at the house of a relative. The man was arrested, and he confessed that the father asked him to care for both the girls as their mother had abandoned them. He also confessed that one of them had died of a fall three years earlier, but could not back his claims and the court passed on the ultimate judgment on him. The father was sentenced for his complicity in covering up the crime by leaving the girl's body near the Prophet's Mosque, where she could not be identified. She was eventually buried. Meanwhile, her sibling is currently being kept at an orphanage until family members come forward to claim her.
