MADINAH — The maternal uncle of a child who was allegedly tortured by his father in Madinah told investigators that the father used to rip off his son's nails. Adel Al-Shami said the man also used to take his son Rayan to a desert area, blindfold him, tie his hands behind his back and threaten to torture him more if he told anyone. According to the uncle, the child was so terrified that he was not able to speak about what was happening to him. It was the school principal who finally discovered the alleged torture against the child. According to the uncle, the child was released on Tuesday and is currently living with his uncle in a furnished apartment in downtown Madinah waiting for immigration procedures that would allow him to join his mother in Yemen to be completed. The child earlier refused to stay in a shelter home. Sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the Prosecution and Investigation Commission ordered Al-Aqiq police station to hold the father for 20 more days after they received more information from the uncle. The father is a Yemeni national and a PhD student at an Islamic university in Madinah. Earlier, the mother of the nine-year-old boy claimed that she had dreams that her ex-husband was torturing her son while she was in Yemen. Afrah Al-Shami, the mother, said she had suffered immensely when she lived with her husband. She said: “He started beating me five days after we got married and never stopped being violent with me ever since.” She successfully filed for divorce two years into the marriage. She was pregnant with her son at that time and flew back to Yemen. The father visited her seven years later and asked her to let take his son with him to Madinah. She agreed thinking he would be safe.
