A seven-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been beaten to death by her father with an air-conditioning hose after she told him she did not love him.
The girl, known only by her first name Yara, was required her to live with her father in Riyadh after her parents separated.
The court heard Yara was locked in her bedroom after she was beaten by her father on the anniversary of before Eid Al Adha, a Muslim celebration.
“He started beating her simply because she told him that she did not love him. He was furious and locked her inside a room,” Yara’s mother claimed to Saudi daily Al Watan, as reported by Gulf News.
When the child’s father checked on his daughter, he allegedly realised she was “in a bad condition” and drove her to hospital in the country's capital city. But, Yara’s mother claimed her child died en route.
The mother also said Yara “did not wish to move in with him, and she was very unhappy”.
Under Saudi laws on divorce, fathers automatically gain custody rights of their sons when they turn seven and their daughters aged nine.
