JEDDAH: The mother of Kalthom, a little girl who was tortured and murdered by her stepmother while the father stood back and watched, has said she is willing to forgive her and her ex-husband if asked by a court, a local Arabic daily reported.

The woman was sentenced to death and the man to 15 years in jail.

The mother said she made the decision as she knew what it felt like to lose a child.

She said, “She (the stepmother) is also a mother with children and I know that her kids need her. My daughter will not come back if she was executed or jailed.”

She described the pair as people with no humanity and heart, especially as her daughter was tortured so badly she had great difficulty recognizing her in the morgue.

She said that the stepmother disfigured her daughter using unimaginable ways. Her daughter’s face was full of blood and swollen so badly, she said.

Her brother, Abdul Muhsin, agreed that executing the stepmother would not bring his niece back to life and said he was also willing to pardon her.

Lawyer and legal consultant Saud Al-Malki said that the mother is unable to pardon the killer as the case was in the public interest and resolved publicly, not privately.

He said that if the stepmother accidentally killed Kalthom then it would be a different story. However, torture-murder is too serious a crime for the mother to have any input.

Kalthom was tortured and eventually killed by her stepmother in a crime that shocked the peaceful Makkah community.

The crime happened five months ago in a Burmese neighborhood in the Al-Khalediya district of the city.