This kind of stuff really gets my goat. How the fuck does this kind of thing still happen? Fayhan al-Ghamdi is a Saudi religious scholar who had raped his five-year-old daughter in 2011 December and tortured her to death in 2012. Now the judge has ruled (last Saturday) – the father has been ordered to pay “blood money” to the mother following a short term in jail! And he is free to go about his life as he chooses to! What the fuck?

A statement released by the group said the man’s daughter, Lama, was admitted to hospital on 25 December 2011 having sustained multiple injuries including a crushed skull, a broken arm and ribs and extensive bruising and burns. According to the victim’s mother, hospital staff told her that her “child’s rectum had been torn open and the abuser had attempted to burn it closed”. Lama died in October 2012. Apparently her father doubted – listen to this – the girl’s virginity and thus abused her! Despite the brutality of the crime, the activists say a judge has ruled: “Blood money and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama’s death suffices as punishment.” The group claim the ruling is based on national laws in Saudi that a father cannot be executed for murdering his children as husbands cannot be executed for murdering their wives. In the trial the father, who is a regular guest on Islamic television networks, reportedly confessed to using cables and a cane to inflict Lama’s injuries.

The judge ruled that the fine and the time that the man had spent in prison after his arrest were enough punishment. Islamic law specifies that the ‘blood money’ can be paid in lieu of the death penalty. Since the victim was a girl, the fine for the preacher, one Fayhan al-Ghamdi, was reduced to half the usual amount! Ghamdi confessed to the crime and said he used a cane and cables to beat his daughter up. The justification the man gave for this was that he doubted that his 5-year-old daughter, Lama Ghamdi, was a virgin. He also forced her into undergoing a medical inspection.