MAKKAH, 4 July 2006 — Police have arrested a Saudi drunkard who, with his brother, locked up his 10-year-old daughter and repeatedly raped her in their apartment in the Hindawiya district of Makkah.

Officers from the Al-Mansour police station arrested the father while he was raping the girl at his apartment.

The girl, who was profusely bleeding, was taken to the Jarwal Maternity and Children’s Hospital and is said to be critically ill.

Police are searching for the girl’s uncle who escaped when they raided the family home.

The police received a phone call from the girl’s mother in the early hours of Saturday saying that her husband and brother-in-law were attacking her daughter in a locked room in the apartment. The mother told the police that the girl had been repeatedly raped for the past three days and had been subjected to severe beating and biting.

Reports of the incident have shocked people living in the neighborhood.

Khaled Bajaharaz, the imam of the local Al-Sindi mosque, described the behavior as an outrage against the rights of women, children, Saudi society and religion.

“These days we hear about cases of fathers and brothers committing incest with their sisters, daughters and mothers. Behavior such as this amounts to an attack against Allah who has entrusted man to care for their women relatives,” he said.

Sociologist Adel Munawwar said, “Drugs and intoxicants are the root causes of several types of brutal crimes. Drunkards and drug addicts never seem to be aware of the depth and gravity of the crimes they commit.”