Adnan Al-Shabrawi Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The director of the Jeddah Social Protection Committee (JSPC) has called on the authorities to arrest a couple who allegedly burned their nine-year-old son. The boy was admitted to King Fahd General Hospital in Jeddah to receive treatment for burns. The JSPC found out about the boy's case when an anonymous man recently reported it to the committee, said the organization's director Salih Al-Ghamdi. It was claimed that the parents also poured scalding water over their son's body whenever he misbehaved or wetted the bed. The initial medical report showed the boy suffered from third-degree burn scars, cuts and abrasions and needed plastic surgery urgently. Al-Ghamdi has stayed by the boy's side at the hospital over the last 24 hours. He also asked a JSPC social worker and psychiatrist to take turns staying with the boy, who refused to let his mother accompany him to the hospital because he was scared she would beat him. Al-Ghamdi said the boy's grandfather would stay with the boy until he recovered. Currently, the JSPC is waiting for a final medical report before writing a detailed report about the child's case and sending it to Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishal Bin Majed, Al-Ghamdi said. A representative from the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) also visited the boy and wrote a report about his case. Okaz/Saudi Gazette met the boy's grandfather, who said he wanted the court to grant him custody of his grandson so that he could take good care of him and protect him from his parents' abuse. Dr. Omar Al-Khouli, an NSHR legal adviser, said laws against child abuse and domestic violence were needed to effectively deal with such cases. Al-Khouli added the boy's psychological state has improved after he was treated for panic attacks, but he still needed to attend more sessions after he leaves hospital. He criticized the long time it was taking to arrest the boy's parents. Khalid Al-Suraihi, legal consultant, said it was a major crime to use violence against a child, according to an Interior Ministry decision in 2007. If investigations proved the parents had been abusing their child, they will be prosecuted, he said. After seeing pictures of the boy's wounds, Al-Suraihi decided to take on his case pro bono. Woman escapes A 27-year-old woman ran away from the protection center two days ago. The director of the center said police had been notified. This is not the first time the woman had escaped from the center. She vanished last year when she was on her way to a computer training institute. The woman had been previously fostered by a family in Madinah and after she had left them, she was admitted to the center in Jeddah. She then married an employee in the center, but was later divorced. When she could not find someone to remarry her, she decided to return to the foster family, but the family refused to take her back. She is the second reported case of an inmate escaping from the center this year.
