TAIF, 13 September 2007 — A lawyer came up yesterday with new details into the murder of eight-year-old Arij, who was allegedly tortured to death early last month by her 29-year-old father and his second wife.
Ahmad Al-Malki, the lawyer representing Arij’s biological mother in the case, told a local newspaper that the father tortured the girl to death inside a room at the house where she lived with him and his second wife. The lawyer said that his information comes from investigators.
The trial, which is ongoing, revolves around the death of the girl. The father is suspected of phoning in a bogus emergency situation, where he claimed to Civil Defense that the girl locked herself in a room. When rescuers came they found her dead with signs of abuse, including burns that appear to have come from an electric iron.
The evidence was strong enough for police to immediately arrest the father and the stepmother. The father has denied that his wife has anything to do with the suspected torture/homicide. The stepmother has said that neither of them was aware of the child’s presence in the house until they discovered her locked in a room.
Arij’s parents divorced in the first year of their marriage eight years ago and she was born in her mother’s house. The father was able to wrest custody of the girl three months before her death in August.
The lawyer provided details from the autopsy report, which mentioned burns in five places on the body, including the face. There were also other marks caused by lashing, probably with a rubber hose.
The father is being held on murder charges while the stepmother is being charged with abetting a criminal. Al-Malki is asking that murder charges also be brought against the stepmother.
The biological mother and her father are demanding access to the full autopsy report before the child is buried. The lawyer attributed the motive of the murder to the man’s sense of revenge at his first wife for her demanding a divorce from him.
