Samer District in Jeddah have referred to the Investigation and General Prosecution (IGP) the case of a brain-dead 18-month-old baby girl who is thought to have been a victim of domestic violence. Preliminary investigations show that girl's father beat her with a broomstick and hit her head against the edge of a bed which led to her death. Lieutenant Nawaf Al-Bouq, Jeddah Police spokesman, said police had received a report from Al-Jadani Hospital in Jeddah about a brain-dead child and a team of investigators rushed to the hospital immediately, Al-Madina newspaper reported. “The father alleged that his daughter died from falling from her bed; however the doctors who examined her diagnosed the death as a result of violence as they found bruises on different parts of her body,” the spokesman said. The mother initially supported the father's account but eventually confessed that her “husband beat the girl with a broomstick several times and threw her against the edge of the bed.” Lieutenant Al-Bouq said upon this testimony “the police detained the father who collapsed and admitted to his crime and this confession was documented in court.” Talal Al-Nashri, Head of the Social Service at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, said: “The hospital received the girl after she was referred from Al-Jadani, and the doctors found that the baby was suffering from a brain hemorrhage because of a crack in the skull.” Dr Hussien Al-Sharif, Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said that he will send a representative to follow up the case. “If the Society's enquiries show that the father was responsible for his daughter death, it will demand his punishment,” the NSHR official said.
