Saudi court upholds death sentence for rapist

Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence given to a teacher found guilty of abducting and raping eight girls, a report says.

The Saudi Arabian Makkah newspaper reported on Sunday that last year a lower court in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah had convicted the man of kidnapping girls aged between six and 11 from public areas and taking them to his home to rape them.

The daily said that the man’s last victim, a nine-year-old whom he kidnapped from a wedding hall, guided police to the area where he lived, leading to his arrest in 2011.

The man, whose name was not mentioned in the report, was earlier said to be 42 at the time of his capture, and married with four children.

The girls were reportedly offered sweets by the man who lured them into his car and sent his family away while he raped his victims in the family home.

In Saudi Arabia, rape and murder are among several crimes punishable by death.