By Abdulaziz Al-Rubaie

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

MAKKAH — Fatima Mohamid Khalil, the Nigerian mother of three daughters whose Saudi father allegedly slaughtered them on Sunday, said she would never go back to to her apartment in Al-Rawdah District in Makkah, so as not to see the blood of her daughters.

The mother, in her late 20s, had a nervous breakdown and was taken to King Faisal Hospital in Al-Shesha where she was sedated.

Fatima was an orphan who lost both her parents at an early age. She was brought up by her grandmother and an aunty.

Narrating the crime, the mother said her daughters were sleeping with her in the main bedroom when the father woke them up early morning.

"This was an unusual act but when I asked him why he told me that his father was coming to visit them and his three daughters had to say hello to their grandfather."

She said he took the three daughters to another room. She said she did not suspect anything but after sometime she became suspicious and decided to go to the room to see what was happening.

"I was shocked to see my middle daughter Rimaz in his hands soaked in her blood after he had slaughtered her with a knife. I tried to rescue her but he pushed me away and I fell down. When I got, up he had already slaughtered the eldest and the youngest daughters," she said.

The mother, who was hysteric and incoherent, said the killing of the daughters was as fast as lightening.

She said she tried to go out but found the door locked and when she was looking for the key at her cupboard, he changed his dress and calmly asked her to go with him to her grandmother's house.

"He went out as if nothing had happened. I started crying and the neighbors came but it was too late," she said.

The mother recalled that two weeks before the brutal crime, he woke her up in the middle of the night and asked her to go to her grandmother's house while he kept the three daughters with him. She said the daughters started crying asking for their mother.

"The neighbors heard their cries and informed the police who came and took him to custody but was soon released on bail," she said.

She said the police brought her daughters to her at her grandmother's house and the father started visiting them every day for about two weeks.

"He took me back to his apartment with the daughters the night of the incident. This was just few hours before he committed his heinous crime," she said.

Fatima said her husband was a retired security guard who is receiving a pension of SR4,000 which was not enough to pay the house rent and meet other expenses.

"He did not pay the rent for three months and was indebted to our grocer by more than SR800," she said.

The wife said her life with the husband was turbulent but she continued with him for the sake of her daughters.

The father admitted to the police that he had killed his three daughters but did not say why. The police believe that the man is a drug addict.

The neighbors did not notice anything unusual with the man who was not socializing with them other than saying a passing hello.

Some lawyers believe that the father will be executed especially if he admitted his crime in the court.

They said discretionary execution should be approved by 13 judges, three of the primary court, five of the Court of Appeal and three at the Supreme Court.