Mum of tortured kids appeals for royal help

A Saudi woman is appealing for a member of the Royal family to intervene and let her take custody of her two sons who had been severely tortured by their father and his second wife, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The mother of Abdul Rahman, 7, and his four-year-old brother Waleed, visited them at hospital where they were admitted with severe injuries last month following systematic torture by their father and his new wife.

Saudi police said last week they had jailed the couple on prosecutor’s orders pending trial after doctors in the northeastern town of Tabuk said the father had used hot objects and other tools to torture his sons in a small underground cell.

Quoted by Sabq Arabic language daily on Monday, their divorced mother said she had a happy life with her husband and two sons a few years ago, adding their father had loved his sons and was taking them out quite often.

“I don’t know what happened to him….how could he do this to his children…since we have divorced, I have not seen my two sons and I have just come to see them after I was told about this tragedy,” she said.

She said Prince Fahd bin Sultan of Tabuk had visited her two sons in hospital and that his support had “largely eased our suffering.”

“All I ask from the Prince now is to help me in taking custody of my children…in return, I promise to devote my life to them and look after them all the time….they need me beside them and I am not ready to lose them again.”

She urged authorities to take the necessary measures to punish her ex-husband and his wife because “what they had done has nothing to do with humanity.”

Saudi authorities said last week they had jailed the unnamed father and his wife for using fire in torturing his two sons in an underground cell as the two remain in hospital nearly a month after the crime was discovered.

Police searching the couple’s house in Tabuk last week found an electric heater along with other tools used by the couple in torturing the two children.

Police discovered the torture case last month when the two children were admitted to hospital in mid May and doctors said they were tortured.

Police searching the house said they discovered a little underground cell used by the father to torture his two sons.

“The cell is only around one square metre and has no furniture, ventilation or air conditioning,” a police spokesman said. “Police searching the house also noticed the place was dirty as the two children apparently were relieving themselves there, which means they had been locked up for long periods of time.”

According to newspapers, police also found creams and plasters to treat the children’s wounds while they also discovered a letter from the man’s new wife urging him not to have mercy on his sons.

Their father had earlier denied torturing his children, claiming that the elder son had beaten up his brother and that he had fallen down. But he later confessed after police faced with medical evidence.

Their uncle, a brother of their father, sought this week to justify what his brother had done, saying he was probably under magic spell and needed spiritual treatment. But their mother’s brother dismissed such claims.

“These all are just lies…he is trying to justify what his brother had committed against his own sons,” said Abdul Rahman Al Khathmi.

He said Waleed’s condition is improving but Abdul Rahman could no longer hear or see. “He is unconscious most of the time because of the torture on the head…..he never cries or laugh and he is not aware of any thing around him.”

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