Man rejects $8 million blood money for dead son

A Saudi man turned down an offer to be paid SR30 million ($8 million) by the relatives of a Kuwait citizen who killed his son after an argument during the annual Muslim pilgrimage last year, newspapers said on Friday.

Khatim al Fahmi denied recent Kuwaiti press reports that he had accepted bloody money to pardon the killer of his son.

“These reports are untrue….I went to court and told the judge that I want the killer of my son to be punished according to Islamic law,” he told Saudi papers.

The Kuwaiti man was in the western Saudi town of Makkah to perform (Haj) pilgrimage in 2011 when he had a heated argument with the Saudi. He pulled a knife and stabbed his adversary many times, killing him on the spot.

Under Islamic law, a killer can escape death punishment and walk free if pardoned by the victim’s relatives in return for diya (blood money).