RIYADH: A court in Riyadh has sentenced a couple who kidnapped a newborn baby from a Riyadh hospital last year.
The man was convicted of kidnapping the infant girl, named Shahad, from the National Guard Hospital in February 2008 and sentenced to 15 years in jail and 13,000 lashes. His wife received three years in jail and 1,500 lashes for abetting the crime.
Shahad was just one-day old when she was taken from the hospital. The ruling was delivered after a trial that lasted seven months.
Shahad was found nine months after she went missing, according to the Shams newspaper. The child’s father had offered a SR1 million reward to anyone who could provide information about his missing daughter.
A witness had testified that he saw a woman in white shoes and abaya running away from the hospital with a baby in a suspicious manner. Although the information was minimal, it helped investigators zero in on the clue and look for the woman.
The investigations led to a couple living in the north of Riyadh with a baby. On searching their home, police were able to find a pair of white shoes. Subsequent DNA tests confirmed that the girl was Shahad.
During investigations, the man claimed he and his wife found the baby and he had contacted police six months later to report he had found her. The general prosecutor, however, contradicted the man’s statement by proving he had not contacted police.
The court heard that when the couple was confronted with evidence, the man shouted and cursed his wife. When questioned individually, the woman initially denied kidnapping the child. She later said her husband brought the baby home saying it was his friend’s baby and that he had asked him to look after her for a few days as the friend and his wife were having difficulties.
When confronted with the witness statement placing a woman in abaya and white shoes at the hospital, the woman denied it was her. She was then asked to don her abaya and white shoes, and the witness was brought to identify her, which he did. In spite of this, the woman stood by her previous statement.
The general prosecutor called for the harshest punishment for the couple, saying their crime caused the girl’s family immense pain.
In court, the man changed his statement. He said he and his wife found the baby in a push chair with no sign of her parents while out shopping. He said they took the infant with them and he did not inform the police, as he was wanted over a case relating to money.
He said he was subsequently arrested in connection with the financial case and spent six months in jail. On his release, he reported the infant to the police but was arrested again.
The woman stuck to her original story that the child was brought home by her husband. She said every time she pushed him to report the baby to police, her husband would say he was taking care of everything. She said when her husband was released from prison, she insisted that he return the baby to her parents. She said she did not inform the police, as she was scared of her husband.
