JEDDAH, 9 April 2008 — A hearing took place yesterday at Madinah’s Administrative Court into the case of two young brothers who died after getting stuck into an artesian well in the holy city last year.
The boys’ father, Faiz Al-Mutairi, is accusing both Madinah Municipality and the Civil Defense of not doing enough to save his sons.
Saud Al-Hujaili, the newly assigned lawyer representing Al-Mutairi, told judges that the well was located in what used to be farming land and that the area should not have been made accessible to people without checking its safety.
However, Madinah Municipality denied it was responsible. It said that the wells were the responsibility of the Civil Defense, which called for another hearing to defend itself.
Al-Mutairi said he expects a ruling on the issue, as the case has been under investigation for a year now. “Each one of them is blaming the other,” said Al-Mutairi, a major with the National Guard. “We are now hoping the coming hearing will bring a final judgment.”
Al-Mutairi said that he sent a detailed fax to the National Society for Human Rights, which transferred the case to the Interior Ministry, a step that he described as positive.
Al-Hujaili, who is heading a team of three lawyers, said that he has handed in his response to the claims made by both the municipality and the Civil Defense.
Al-Mutairi is claiming SR10 million in compensation — SR5 million from each of the governmental bodies. The well in which the boys fell in was 12 meters deep and 15 inches wide.
Both boys, Mushari, 12, and Fahd, 6, lost their lives after the Civil Defense was unable to rescue them until 3 a.m. even though the boys fell in the well in the late evening. “During all that time we were interacting with the kids but suddenly silence prevailed and we knew that we had lost them,” Al-Mutairi told Arab News.
The next hearing is to be heard on June 3.
