Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — The Court of Appeals acquitted a woman who was convicted by a lower court of murdering her own son, Al-Watan newspaper reported.

According to a legal source, Red Crescent paramedics found the body of a man with a bullet wounds in a house. The ambulance service was called in by a neighbor who reported that he had heard gunshots from the house.

The man was shot underneath his right armpit and in his left arm.

The mother of the man said on that ill-fated night she had gone to visit her son, his wife and children because she had got worried about their absence from a family event.

"My son and his wife have had problems between them and I was worried that something might have happened causing their absence. When I came to their home my son, his wife and daughters were there. I asked him to sit down and have a cup of coffee with me. He ignored me and went into his room," said the mother.

She said her son then came out of his room with some papers in his hands. "He ripped them apart and looked worried. Then suddenly he yelled out at his wife and daughters and ordered them to prepare the food," she said.

"A few minutes later, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at his wife and daughters. I grabbed his arm and pulled the gun away from his wife and children. I yelled at them to run away. I was trying to pull the gun out of my son's hand when I heard a gunshot," said the mother.

She said she did not see any blood so she continued to struggle with her son to take the gun from him.

"We both fell to the ground but he began to get up. I got up behind him and tried to hold his hand back when I heard a second gunshot. That was when my son fell to the floor and died," said the mother.

The man's wife corroborated the mother's claim. She said she and her children ran out of the house in horror when her mother-in-law held back her husband from them.

She added she did not know what happened after she and her daughters escaped.

The mother was in her 50s and she was detained for four months in prison. She denied all the charges against her.

The Court of Appeals looked into the case and concluded that the gun was unlicensed and therefore the court could not prove who the owner of the gun was.

There was no clear evidence against the mother and the Court of Appeals accepted her pleas and concluded that she was innocent. It ordered her immediate release from prison.