Algerian pilgrims seek justice for the rape and murder of Sara in Mecca : Saudi police confirm dead girl not raped

Sara, 14, a French of Algerian origins, was found dead on Tuesday night by relatives of her father who was on a pilgrimage in Makkah, Islam’s holiest shrine. They told police they believe the girl was raped and murdered by expatriate workers at that hotel.

however,  Saudi police confirm dead girl not raped. “Forensic examination showed the girl was not raped…fractures in her vertebral column and left foot showed she fell down from the 16th floor,” Makkah police spokesman Major Abdul Mohsen Al Miman told Saudi papers Friday.

He said police were investigating some Yemeni and Bangladeshi suspects but did not mention whether the girl was murdered.

Sara’s death triggered protests by scores of Algerian pilgrims in Makkah, prompting police to disperse them peacefully after promising to probe her death.

Her father, Abu Mudeen Al Khateeb, a man Algerian origin, was quoted on Thursday as saying he suspected Sara had been raped and murdered by unknown assailants who could be workers at one of the hotels in the area.

Quoted by Saudi media on Friday, her father said Sara would be buried in Makkah as she is considered a “martyr.”

Algerian consul in Saudi Arabia, Saleh Attiya, said his government was in touch with the Saudi authorities to determine the cause of Sara’s death.

Newspapers also quoted Sara’s real father, Mohammed bin Wais, as saying she left him in Algeria and travelled to France with her divorced mother. Wais later asked Al Khateeb to look after his daughter there after problems with her mother forced her to move to a government social centre.

“She was in touch with me all the time through e mail…Sara is a clever girl as she got top ranks in class, memorized most of the Koran and spoke seven languages although she lived in a foreign country and was neglected by her mother…her blood will not go in vain and I call on the Algerian authorities to remain in touch with the Saudis to find the truth behind her death,” Wais said.

previously, Squdi Police said Four men are being questioned in Saudi Arabia in connection with the possible rape and murder of an Algerian teenage girl who was on pilgrimage in Mecca, press reports said on Thursday.

The authorities in the Muslim holy city are questioning “four expatriates from Yemen and Bangladesh in connection with the suspected rape and murder of a 15-year-old Algerian girl,” the Saudi Gazette reported.

Her body was found early on Wednesday on the roof of a hotel neighbouring her own, the English-language daily said. Several Saudi papers reported that she threw herself from a balcony in her own hotel in an attempt to escape.

“Four hotel employees, from Yemen and Bangladesh, were arrested and are being questioned,” Major Abdul Mohsin al-Maiman of Mecca police was quoted by several papers as saying.

The teenager, who lived in France, had come to Mecca with members of her family to perform the Umrah or minor pilgrimage, Maiman said.

Her French mother had come with her Algerian father and seven-year-old brother to Mecca from the southern French port city of Marseille.