MAKKAH, 1 August 2006 — The Makkah General Court has upheld the confession of a drug addict who started a fire at his home with the aim of killing his mother for refusing to give him money to buy drugs, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday.
Arab News reported on Sunday that after having started the fire the 24-year-old youth fled the scene of the crime by stealing a car from a Bangladeshi driver. Police arrested the youth a short while later.
The drug addict had filled his home with gas and had splashed water on to the floor to cause his mother to slip and be unable to escape. However, the mother managed to survive with minor burns. In her statement given to the police, the mother explained how her son was furious at her for not giving him any money to buy drugs.
Chief Judge Sheikh Ahmad Al-Marzou stressed the importance of “punishing the youth in proportion to the seriousness of the crime.”
The judge said that the youth had gone beyond a stage of listening to moral advice and had degraded himself to a state where he was even ready to kill his own mother. The sheikh added that the drug addict deserved a jail sentence and a number of lashes that would deter him from committing such a crime again.
Speaking about the gravity of the crime the sheikh attributed the case to a degenerate society that had distanced itself from core religious values such as love for parents and close relatives.
The report said the mother had tried helping her 24-year-old son who is a constant hashish user. The woman explained that police had arrested her son and then released him after she complained of him beating her earlier this year.
According to a court source the youth is currently in jail while prosecutors prepare for the trial.
