By Fatima Al-Dubais

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The father and the paternal grandmother is charged with causing the death of a primary school girl in Al-Ahsa governorate in the Eastern Province.

The Public Prosecution said the girl died at her home. The director of education in Al-Ahsa testified against the girl's father and her grandmother claiming that they both had abused her and this might have caused her death.

The prosecution sought two years' imprisonment and a fine of SR100,000 for the father and 15 years' imprisonment and SR1 million fine for the grandmother.

The father rejected the allegations saying the prosecution confirmed that there was no clear evidence to prove that he was the murderer. However, he did admit that he had physically abused his daughter and her siblings.

The father said he had hit her in the face and shoulders and stepped on her foot. He denied stamping on her abdomen or chest.

The victim's sisters testified against their father saying that he had regularly abused them and their sister. He had hit her, stepped on her chest and abdomen and threw her across the wall causing her to bleed from her nose and mouth, they said.

The sisters added that their father would beat them for any reason such as failing to take the garbage out. The sisters also stated that their grandmother would force them to beg during the month of Ramadan. She would also force them to work as cleaners at wedding halls.

The grandmother confirmed the siblings' claims and said their father had hit the victim when she refused to clean the house. She said he chased her and kicked her in the abdomen and chest.

However, the man's wife denied any knowledge of the grandmother forcing the girls to beg in the streets but confirmed that she would have them work as cleaners in wedding halls.