Saudi Gazette report

NAJRAN — A man arrested for killing his wife and four children in Sharourah a few weeks ago suffers from persecutory delusions, Al-Watan daily reported.



Najran police spokesman Lt. Col. Abdullah Al-Ashwi, said: “We’re dealing with a mental patient here who believes that he is being persecuted and people want to harm him.



“His delusions led him to commit his heinous crime.”



It turned out that he had a medical file at Sharourah General Hospital’s psychology clinic, he said.



“However, this doesn’t justify the horrible crime that cost an innocent woman and four little children their lives.”



He said the man would be referred to court when investigations are complete.



Al-Ashwi said everything that has been reported recently about the man and the murders were mere personal accounts and opinions.



Meanwhile, the husband’s family insisted that their son was haunted by jinns and asked prison authorities to allow them to bring inside someone to read the Holy Qur’an to him.



However, the authorities turned down their request.



Sharourah residents said the man was known to be a good father who loved his children immensely.



The 33-year-old father allegedly slit the throat of his 25-year-old wife while she was asleep, dragged her body to the kitchen, covered it with bed sheets and put a copy of the Holy Qur’an on her head.



Police said he went to his children’s room and woke up his five-year-old son and slit his throat, before doing the same to his four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.



Afterward, officers said he went to his ex-wife’s father’s house and asked for their 11-year-old son.



He took him to his house and attacked him from behind, said police, adding that he forced his son down to the floor and slit his throat.



He then allegedly put his children’s bodies next to each other and covered them with a blanket, left the house for a while and came back a few hours later.



Late that night, he decided to surrender to police.



He asked one of his relatives to go with him to the police station where he confessed to officers about the murders.



Police said when the man was asked why he committed the murders, he said he did not want his wife and children live in poverty and wanted them to go to paradise.