An official Saudi news website says a prominent Muslim preacher has been sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes for raping and beating his 5-year-old daughter to death.
Fayhan al-Ghamdi, who often preached on television, was convicted of beating his daughter Lama with canes and electrical cables, crushing her skull. She was also raped repeatedly and died in a Saudi hospital in November 2012.
The news website Sabq reported the sentencing yesterday, saying al-Ghamdi was not given a harsher sentence because Lama's mother accepted 1 million riyals, roughly USD 267,000, from her ex-husband during litigation in the case, as "blood money" allowed under Saudi law.
