Mentally-ill man to get 2,000 lashes for child rape

A Saudi court sentenced a local man said to be mentally ill for four years in jail and ordered him lashed 2,000 times in 40 sessions after he was convicted of raping a little girl, Shams newspaper reported on Sunday.

A panel of three judges in the sacred city of Makkah described it as a reduced verdict as the defendant was saved from the gallows because of his mental problems, the Arabic language daily said.

The unnamed Saudi man was found guilty of kidnapping a child in Makkah and raping her but his lawyer produced a health certificate at court showing he was suffering from psychological problems.

“The defendant and his parents are all suffering from mental problems and are living under my custody,” Shams quoted the defendant’s uncle, Hassan, as saying. “Now the judges insist on executing that verdict and I am under great pressure by the police to hand over my nephew to them.”

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