Muslim mother beat son, 7, to death for not learning Qur’an

LONDON: A “devoted” Muslim mother beat her son to death for failing to memorise passages from the Qur’an, a court heard yesterday.

Sara Ege, 33, subjected seven-year-old Yaseen to “prolonged cruelty”, regularly hitting him with a wooden pestle, a judge ruled.

She was given a life sentence yesterday, with a minimum of 17 years, after being found guilty of murdering her son at their home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, in July 2010.

Seeking to hide her actions, she also set fire to his body. As the sentence was read out Ege collapsed, and had to be helped from the dock at court.

“I am satisfied that it was his failure to learn the Qur’an that day that resulted in the beating that caused his death,” Mr Justice Wyn Williams told the court. “On the day of Yaseen’s death you had kept him home from school so he could devote himself to his study of the Qur’an.

“You killed your own son. At the time of the killing he was particularly vulnerable because of his age and because of his relative physical frailty.”

Her husband, Yousuf Ege, a taxi driver, was cleared of allowing the death of a child by failing to protect him.

Sara Ege had pleaded not guilty to murder and claimed her husband was responsible for Yaseen’s death.

A case review after the sentencing said domestic violence had first been reported in the family in 2003, and again in 2007.

The judge said: “The violence Yaseen suffered was not confined to the day of his death. For three months you beat him often with a wooden pestle and I’m confident these beatings left him in a significant amount of pain. I accept you were a devoted and caring mom. Except for the obsession with Yaseen’s learning you did many fine things to bring him up as a young boy.”

The judge also accepted that Ege “had a difficult relationship with your husband and your mother-in-law”.