A BAHRAINI mother-of-five has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for constantly torturing her children, leaving them with fractured hands and black eyes.
Her 18-year-old boyfriend has also been jailed for seven years for attacking them and aiding and abetting the crime.
The 29-year-old mum looked unfazed as she appeared at the High Criminal Court yesterday, which found the duo guilty of inflicting torture and causing permanent disability.
They regularly assaulted the children – three boys and two girls – whose ages range from 12 months to seven years.
They are said to have nearly killed the youngest child on June 14 after the male defendant spun the boy in the air because he would not stop crying.
The baby was then taken to a private hospital in Manama with fractures to his head, hands and chest before being placed on life support by the medical team. He has been crippled for life.
The hospital authorities informed police, who launched a probe leading to the arrest of the mother and her boyfriend.
“The heartless mother who is supposed to take care of her children tortured them,” read the court ruling yesterday.
“The woman and her lover brutally attacked the children including her 12-month old baby – who was taken to the hospital in a critical condition in June.
“He suffered several bone fractures and his medical report shows that he had been assaulted since his birth, which caused him to be crippled for life.
“Evidence proved that her co-defendant also tortured the children.
“The mother said she was only disciplining them, but this brutal assault amounts to torture, which is forbidden in Islam.
“She nearly killed her children.
“The defendants denied the charges in an attempt to evade punishment.”
Her six-year-old son previously described the horrors of how his mother and boyfriend, who he called ‘uncle’, would torture him and his siblings on a daily basis.
The defendants have pinned the blame on each other, while the mother insisted that her co-defendant attacked her baby because he was crying.
The woman’s sister-in-law also described how the mother would always bring her children with bruises and black eyes to her home.
The GDN last week reported that the mother had lost her custody rights.
The Lower Sharia Court had ruled against the woman, transferring the custody of the infant to his aunt for his safety.
The aunt previously lodged an urgent lawsuit to be granted the custody of the children as their father is dead.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))