Israel Matzav

#AnaLama: Saudi preacher who raped and murdered daughter pays 'blood money' and is released

You may recall Lamaa, the 5-year old Saudi girl who was raped (not part of the previous post - just found that out now), tortured and murdered by her father, a Saudi television preacher.

The only good news I can tell you is that the preacher has now been named. His name is Fayhan al-Ghamdi.

The bad news is that he has now paid 'blood money' and has been released from custody by the Saudi authorities. No trial (heck - he admitted he did it). No prison sentence. Just money for snuffing out a little girl's life.

Fayhan al-Ghamdi had been accused of killing his daughter Lama, who suffered multiple injuries including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and extensive bruising and burns. Social workers say she had also been repeatedly raped and burnt.

Fayhan al-Ghamdi admitted using a cane and cables to inflict the injuries after doubting his five-year-old daughter’s virginity and taking her to a doctor, according to the campaign group Women to Drive.

Rather than getting the death penalty or receiving a long prison sentence for the crime, Fayhan al-Ghamdi served only a few months in jail before a judge ruled the prosecution could only seek ‘blood money’.

Albawaba News reported the judge as saying: "Blood money and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama's death suffices as punishment."

Fayhan al-Ghamdi, who regularly appears on television in Saudi Arabia, is said to have agreed to pay £31,000 to Lama’s mother.

The money is considered compensation under Islamic law, although it is only half the amount that would have been paid had Lama been a boy.

Despite Saudi Arabia’s famously strict legal system, Women to Drive say fathers cannot be executed for murdering their children in the country. Equally, husbands cannot be executed for murdering their wives.

Formal objections to the ruling have been raised by three Saudi activists, and the twitter hashtag #AnaLama (which translates as I Am Lama) has been set up.

What's a girl's life worth in Saudi Arabia?  £31,000. And a boy's life is worth £62,000. Really not a whole lot more What a sick society and a sick religion.

Labels: child killer, children, Islamic treatment of women, religion of rape, Saudi Arabia

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:36 PM