Sisters held captive for 10yrs

2009-01-14 10:05

Riyadh - A Saudi rights organisation has freed two women held captive by their half-brother in a small room in their parents' home for 10 years, local media reported on Tuesday.

The Saudi National Association for Human Rights said it discovered the two women in their early 20s after receiving an anonymous tip, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported.

The two women were immediately hospitalised after they were freed from the house located in the southern city of Jazan.

"The two girls are in a very bad physical and psychological condition. They need utmost care and total rehabilitation," Dr Ahmad Yehia, a regional supervisor at the rights organisation told Okaz.

The women's mother abandoned them in 1999 after divorcing their frail and elderly father. They were 10 and 12 years old at the time.

Responsibility for the girls and their ailing father then fell to their half-brother, who put them in a small room with a toilet and fed them through an opening in the door.

The two were deprived of any kind of education or health care throughout their captivity.

No information was provided as to criminal charges against the brother.

- DPA