MADINAH: An Egyptian man, his wife and his sister are to appear before a Madinah court in a few days in connection with the kidnapping of an Afghan girl who was kept prisoner in their home for four years.
Muhammad Junaidi has been charged with kidnapping, imprisoning and abusing the girl, who is now 11, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
Junaidi’s wife, Fatimah, and sister, Jamalat, were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping the girl in the beginning of January. Their arrests followed an investigation into the discovery of the remains of two children inside a mosque courtyard in the Al-Aqeeq neighborhood of Madinah.
According to the girl, Raziah, Jamalat lured her to Junaidi’s house where she was kept prisoner. Raziah said Junaidi wanted to marry her and smuggle her to Egypt. “They changed my name to Duaa and told me that Junaidi would marry me,” Raziah told Arab News after police reunited her with her parents in January.
Raziah reportedly speaks Arabic with an Egyptian accent and no longer speaks her native Afghan language.
Describing how her daughter was kidnapped, Raziah’s mother, who sold clothes outside the holy mosque in Madinah, said she sent Raziah with Jamalat who had bought some clothes. Jamalat said she did not have money with her and would send the cash with Raziah if she would go with her to her hotel.
Jamalat has been charged with kidnapping and detaining the girl, while Fatimah has been charged with concealing her husband and sister-in-law’s crimes. Junaidi is currently being held at Abyar Ali General Prison in Madinah.
According to a media report, he harbors strange views. For example, he considers using soap to be a sin, something that has led to jail officials forcing him into taking a bath.
The couple’s four children are currently at the Taiba Children’s Village; a fifth child is with Fatimah in jail.
Jamalat was initially arrested in connection with Raziah’s disappearance, but Raziah’s mother could not identify her as the woman who took away her daughter. Jamalat was subsequently deported as she did not have proper residency documents, but she returned to the Kingdom later under a different name.
It was the discovery of the remains of Junaidi’s two children (boys thought to be 3 and 4) in a bag in front of a mosque that led to the investigation.
Junaidi claimed that the boys were born with a life-threatening condition and had died. According to police, Junaidi lived in the Kingdom illegally and did not report the deaths fearing he might be deported.
Junaidi left the remains in front of the mosque as he wanted his sons to be properly buried.
“Abduction and rape are crimes not condoned by the religion because they amount to terrorizing people and disrupting law and order,” said professor Faihan Al-Mutairi from the Islamic University of Madinah.
