JEDDAH: The parents of a two-and-a-half-year-old child who was decapitated in a Jeddah supermarket in February last year have waived their right to execute the child’s uncle who committed the crime, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.
The parents have instead agreed to take blood money. The 25-year-old maternal-uncle, whose name has been withheld, took his nephew, Ahmed, to the Al-Marhaba supermarket in Sari Street where he decapitated him in the store’s fruit and vegetable section in front of other shoppers. He then stood motionless until the police came.
The newspaper reported that intermediaries have succeeded in closing the case that was being considered by Jeddah’s general court.
Lawyer and legal consultant Abdullah ibn Abid Al-Malki, who is representing the child’s father, Malaz ibn Muhammad ibn Nasser Al-Masri, said the uncle was kept at a psychiatric hospital in Taif for observation for six months.
He was later found to be mentally stable.
Al-Malki said that the doctors, however, asked the court in their report to consider giving him a reduced punishment.
The lawyer said the court held two sessions before it received the father’s testimony that he was ready to accept blood money instead.
He said the court would decide the amount of money to be given to the family of the slain child.
