SAKAKA, 3 January 2008 — A baby boy was kidnapped from a hospital nursery in Sakaka a day after it was born, according to Col. Daman Al-Daraan, spokesman of Al-Jouf police.
“Police in Khalediya received a call on the disappearance of the baby from the nursery at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Sakaka around noon today,” the police spokesman told Arab News yesterday.
A nurse suspected a woman, who approached her a number of times asking to see the baby, was behind the incident and police launched a search. Col. Abdul Mohsen Al-Belaihed, director of Khalediya police, and criminal investigation officers visited the hospital.
“While questioning workers at the hospital, a nurse told the police that a woman came to the nursery saying the baby’s mother, Fakhriya Diyab, wanted to breastfeed it,” the spokesman said.
The nurse said she refused to give the baby to the woman who had approached her four times. However, the baby disappeared when the nurses were preoccupied with the newborn baby of a colleague, said Col. Daraan, adding that the governor of the region was following up the case.
Marzouk Al-Sarhani, the child’s father, said when he went to the nursery to get the baby to show it to its mother the nurses refused his request, saying the baby was under observation. “At around 11 a.m. a nurse asked me whether I had received the baby. I told her that we had not received the baby and had not sent anyone to receive it,” the father said.
