8-year-old girl killed for 'fistful of biscuits'

A ruthless Saudi woman tortured her eight-year-old step-daughter to death just because she stole a couple of biscuits from the cupboard because she was hungry.

Police in the Saudi capital Riyadh arrested the woman, identified as Kolthoum, after doctors said the girl, Roua, died of severe injuries caused by torture.

The child’s 11-year-old brother Ahmed was also tortured by his father’s wife for stealing biscuits but survived after he was rushed to hospital.

Doctors, however, said he was still in a shock and could suffer from a psychological trauma for a long time after his little sister died next to him and he could do nothing to save her.

At his bed in hospital, Ahmed spoke softly to the police and journalists, telling them that his step-mother had always beaten him and his little sister and deprived them of food. He said that, on that night, he and his sister went to the cupboard and took a few biscuits after they could not sleep because of hunger.

He recalled that in the morning, his father’s wife stormed into his room fuming after discovering some biscuits had gone and told them to go to the back garden, where she ordered them to go round it many times barefooted in the scorching summer heat.

Ahmed, who was surrounded by his divorced mother and 12-year-old sister Ruba, said the woman then ordered them to go into the house and stand on one foot until she tells them to sit down. But his sister could not do this and collapsed.

“She rushed towards my sister and hit her with the broom stick….she then banged her head against the wall…my sister fainted but my father’s wife said she was pretending and poured cold water on her…she then carried her to the bed and started to bang her head against the bed’s metal rail….my sister slowly opened her eyes and then shut them again…at that time, I knew she was gone,” Ahmed told the Arabic daily newspaper ‘Sabq.’ .

Ruba told police that her step-mother had always tortured them and threatened them, so they would not tell their father.

“After what happened, I hope they (authorities) will give us justice and execute her,” she said.

‘Sabq’ said Kothoum, in her 40s, had been arrested by Riyadh’s police after confessing to killing Roua and torturing the other children.


 

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