© IndependentLama al-Ghamdi and her father Fayhan al-Ghamdi.
Fayhan al-Ghamdi had been accused of killing his daughter Lama, who suffered multiple injuries including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and extensive bruising and burns. Social workers say she had also been repeatedly raped and burnt.
Fayhan al-Ghamdi admitted using a cane and cables to inflict the injuries after doubting his five-year-old daughter's virginity and taking her to a doctor, according to the campaign group Women to Drive.
Rather than getting the death penalty or receiving a long prison sentence for the crime, Fayhan al-Ghamdi served only a few months in jail before a judge ruled the prosecution could only seek 'blood money'.
Albawaba News reported the judge as saying: "Blood money and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama's death suffices as punishment."
Fayhan al-Ghamdi, who regularly appears on television in Saudi Arabia, is said to have agreed to pay £31,000 to Lama's mother.
The money is considered compensation under Islamic law, although it is only half the amount that would have been paid had Lama been a boy.
Despite Saudi Arabia's famously strict legal system, Women to Drive say fathers cannot be executed for murdering their children in the country. Equally, husbands cannot be executed for murdering their wives.
Formal objections to the ruling have been raised by three Saudi activists, and the twitter hashtag #AnaLama (which translates as I Am Lama) has been set up.
Local reports say public anger over the settlement is growing across Saudi Arabia, with authorities planning to set up a 24-hour hotline to take calls about child abuse.
* Saudi royal family intervenes over preacher released despite raping and killing daughter
......I hadn't read this story. I feel like acid has been poured on my soul and I pray harder than ever that we are indeed in the 'end of times'. I would gladly give my life to end the unbearable amounts of pain, suffering and brutality young innocent lives must endure on this hell-hole-of-a-planet.......EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY.
- By some estimates, as many as 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world.
- In some cases, children as young as eight years old are forced to work as prostitutes.
- An enslaved child may be raped between five and ten times per night.
- The transaction may be for as little as $5 each time. However, the first time a child is sold, the price may rise as high as $200.
- When a child is forced into a brothel, her name is typically replaced with a number -- further stripping her of her humanity.
- Child brothels will sometimes print up a menu for men to look at, complete with pictures and prices -- as if each child were a
piece of meat.
- On average, two children are sold every minute.