Prince Muhammad Bin Saud, Emir of Al-Baha province, has issued directives to the Al-Birr Charitable Society to provide assistance to the four Al-Mekhwah children who were recently discovered to have been subjected to continual physical abuse by their father, stepmother and stepbrothers. The charity has dispatched help to the family's new accommodation which was arranged for them by Princess Ghada Bint Hamoud Bin Abdul Aziz, wife of Prince Faisal Bin Muhammad, Undersecretary of Al-Baha province. The three boys and one girl and their mother, whose case came to light earlier this week, are to receive continuous help in the form of food and money. Saudi Gazette reported on May 5 that the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution had begun interrogating the father of the children after he had reportedly beaten and abused them over a long period of time. The alleged abuse was discovered two months ago when the children's mother, an Arab of non-Saudi nationality, came to the Kingdom to visit them. The four children, of whom the boys are aged between 11 and 14, say that they suffered regular beatings, and that they were burnt and maltreated in other ways by their father, stepmother and stepbrothers.
