MAKKAH, 14 February 2007 — An African overstayer who would carry out illegal abortions at her apartment charging SR5,000 per operation was arrested by Makkah police on Monday night following an intensive weeklong investigation.
According to police, the 40-year-old woman was mainly frequented by young women who had fallen pregnant outside wedlock. The woman had “set up shop” close to an area behind Mansour Street known as Hosh Bakr, an old area of Makkah famous for its narrow winding alleys and high crime rate. It is mainly home to African overstayers.
The woman also sold herbs that would reportedly make women, who are in early pregnancy, miscarry. Police sources said the woman would avoid bringing non-African women to her apartment and would carry out home visits to avoid capture. African women would be catered for at the woman’s apartment.
Having received information about the woman, Col. Muhammad Al-Minshawi organized a secret police team to monitor the woman’s movements and her home. After a few days, police gathered enough evidence to prove that the woman was carrying out abortions.
The woman was arrested in Hosh Bakr carrying a large bag of herbs that she would sell to women. The woman was taken to the Al-Mansour police station for further questioning.
At the police station, Arab News tried to speak to the woman who pretended she was crazy by acting hysterically and hoping that the police would transfer her to hospital. Officers say it was common for overstayers to behave as such in order to avoid interrogation.
After a while, the woman calmed down and began cooperating with police. “The medicine I used to give to women were just some herbs that had been boiled in water and consisted of some other types of ground wood. Women who are in their first three months of pregnancy can miscarry if they take this medicine,” she claimed. “The abortion business is a profitable business in which many overstayers end up making a lot of money,” she added.
