Manama: Saleh, the 33-year-old man accused of killing his wife and four children in Saudi Arabia, has tried to commit suicide in his prison cell, sources said.
“He tried to slash his thigh and slit his veins with a piece of ceramic that he used like a sharp knife,” the sources said, quoted by local daily Al Sharq on Thursday.
“However, he was taken to the local hospital where doctors stitched the wound. He was later taken back to the cell.”
Saudi Arabia was rocked by the accusation that the Bidoon (stateless Arab) man in Sharoorah in the south of the kingdom slaughtered his wife in her sleep and killed his three children, Fahad, Mohammad and Noora, who were with them at home.
He then took his eldest son, Abdullah, 11, from the home of his former wife after he told the family that he needed him for a reception. However, once they arrived home, Saleh allegedly continued his killing spree and stabbed his son to death. Hours later, Saleh went to the local police station and informed them about the multiple murders.
“He has confessed the murders and has enacted them for the sake of the investigation,” a spokesperson for the police in Najran said. “His statements have been endorsed by two judges in Sharoorah and a third judge in Najran.”
Human rights activists in the area said that they looked at the case as domestic violence and wanted to know all the details. A forum on domestic violence and abuses is expected to be held to help raise awareness about their negative consequences and the need to curb and gradually eliminate them.
Sources said that Saleh was originally from the Hadramout governorate in the eastern part of Yemen and that he moved with his father to Saudi Arabia around 30 years ago. Officials earlier said that he was not a Saudi citizen and that he had applied for the Saudi nationality.
