By Mohammad Makki
JAZAN —A father was arrested on Sunday for physically assaulting his son.
Jazan Police spokesman Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Al-Zahrani said a video went viral on social media showing the father, nicknamed Abu Faris, brutally attacking his son while verbally abusing his son’s mother, nicknamed Umm Faris.
“The video shows the young boy being shackled in chains and beaten by his father in front of his mother. The mother reported her son’s father had forced their son to stay at a hotel room with strangers once. The mother is concerned about the mental health of the father and has requested for him to undergo medical checkups,” said Al-Zahrani.
He added the father has been arrested and the son taken by Jazan Social Affairs.
Umm Faris’ lawyer Essa Maghfouri, meanwhile, said public authorities lack proper correspondence.
“The protection home was previously contacted to receive the child but the protection home replied there must be an official order from the police stating that the child is to be taken from his parent and put in a protection home. Now the child is mentally, physically and psychologically traumatized,” said Al-Zahrani.
He added, “The child needs to be put in a rehabilitation center to recover from the verbal and physical abuse he received from his father.”
Jazan National Human Rights Society Ahmad Al-Bahkali said the society has dealt with the father and his abuse a year and a half ago.
“The father has mental issues which led him to take his child all the way to Makkah and to other places. The father acts irrationally and brutally abused the child. The society has reconciled the case of the father a year and a half ago but it seems that the father has gone back to his abusive behavior,” said Al-Zahrani.
