In a surprising new development, the police have arrested the father of Juri Al-Khalidi, the two-year-old who had been kidnapped and held for over a week by her abductors, for allegedly hiding information.
According to a source quoted by a local newspaper on Thursday, Juri’s father had received messages from the kidnapper but had failed to pass them on to the police. The matter is being probed by the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution.
The source also revealed that Juri’s sister is suspected of being involved in the kidnapping because she visited the same apartment where the child was held. The sister had allegedly prepared food for the kidnappers and cut Juri’s hair, the source said.
The police had found Juri in an apartment in Riyadh’s Ishbiliya district and arrested a Saudi, a Syrian and an Ethiopian maid who had been looking after her.
The maid apparently told the police that she did not know the child had been kidnapped. She had been told by the Saudi national that Juri was his child from a previous marriage.
There had been widespread joy earlier this week when Juri was found by the police, with messages pouring in to the family from relatives, friends and the public.
Juri was kidnapped inside a clinic on Riyadh’s busy Khurais Road on Nov. 20, when her father left to buy something from a nearby shop while her mother was being treated inside.
Agencies
