JEDDAH, 20 May 2006 — The body of nine-year-old Ghosun who died a month ago as a result of severe physical abuse by her father and stepmother was finally put to rest yesterday.
Ghosun’s body has been in the morgue all this time until investigations had determined the cause and the perpetrator of the murder. Her mother was able to see her for the last time before she was taken to the cemetery in Makkah by her uncles and grandfather. Both the father and stepmother are in jail awaiting court hearings.
The gruesome murder last month brought forth attention again to the lack of resources, mechanisms and authority to protect children from abuse under the hands of their parents or relatives.
For a whole year while Ghosun was in her father’s custody she suffered constant physical abuse by her father and stepmother. She was starved, punched and slapped, burned, chained to her bed and prevented from going to school. The signs of abuse were visible to her uncles and mother whenever they managed to see her. Her mother sought the intervention of the police, the social service department, the National Society for Human Rights and finally the municipality a few days before the murder but to no avail.
None of the officials were able to remove Ghosun from her father’s custody because he denied them access to her and they failed to intervene for the child’s welfare based on the mother’s complaints. At one point, the father’s brother intervened and took Ghosun into his own home, but the father went to the police accusing his brother of kidnapping his daughter. The father was able to regain custody of the child with the help of the authorities.
The mother has sent a letter to Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and to Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed seeking the severest punishment for those responsible for her daughter’s death.
In statements to police, both Ghosun’s father and stepmother admitted to torturing the girl but each was accusing the other of causing the death. According to the police report, the child had broken ribs from being kicked, front teeth knocked out, bruises on different parts of her body and marks indicating she had been poked with a sharp object, probably a knife. The cause of death was determined to be by choking — on the victim’s own blood.
A judge told Arab News that both the father and stepmother would be punished for torturing the girl regardless of who caused the death. If the father is determined to be the killer, he will not face the death penalty under the Shariah.
The stepmother, on the other hand, could face execution if found guilty of committing the act that led to the girl’s death. The father faces between five years to life in prison as well as lashes.
