Saudi police confirm dead girl not raped

An adopted teenage daughter of a Muslim French man found dead in Makkah was not raped and her death could have been caused by her fall from the 16th floor of a local hotel, according to Saudi police.

Sara, 14, was found dead on Tuesday night by relatives of her father who was on a pilgrimage in Makkah, Islam’s holiest shrine. They told police they believe the girl was raped and murdered by expatriate workers at that hotel.

“Forensic examination showed the girl was not raped…fractures in her vertebral column and left foot showed she fell down from the 16th floor,” Makkah police spokesman Major Abdul Mohsen Al Miman told Saudi papers Friday.

He said police were investigating some Yemeni and Bangladeshi suspects but did not mention whether the girl was murdered.

Sara’s death triggered protests by scores of Algerian-French pilgrims in Makkah, prompting police to disperse them peacefully after promising to probe her death.

Her father, Abu Mudeen Al Khateeb, a French of Algerian origin, was quoted on Thursday as saying he suspected Sara had been raped and murdered by unknown assailants who could be workers at one of the hotels in the area.

Quoted by Saudi media on Friday, her father said Sara would be buried in Makkah as she is considered a “martyr.”

Algerian consul in Saudi Arabia, Saleh Attiya, said his government was in touch with the Saudi authorities to determine the cause of Sara’s death.

Newspapers also quoted Sara’s real father, Mohammed bin Wais, as saying she left him in Algeria and travelled to France with her divorced mother. Wais later asked Al Khateeb to look after his daughter there after problems with her mother forced her to move to a government social centre.

“She was in touch with me all the time through e mail…Sara is a clever girl as she got top ranks in class, memorized most of the Koran and spoke seven languages although she lived in a foreign country and was neglected by her mother…her blood will not go in vain and I call on the Algerian authorities to remain in touch with the Saudis to find the truth behind her death,” Wais said.
 

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