KUWAIT: The interior ministry's security and media department yesterday said a nine-year-old Kuwaiti boy died after being "tortured" and locked up for several days by his parents. It was reported earlier that Eid Talaq told Sulaibkhat police that his son Waleed died of natural causes after he rushed him to Jahra Hospital on Monday.

The ministry statement said the child's body had cuts and bruises, while his hands and clothes were wet, and he was pronounced dead on arrival.

On being interrogated, the parents admitted the boy was hyperactive and used to attack his brothers, and they used to beat him for disciplinary purposes. They said that the boy was tied up and locked in a room for several days, so he stopped eating. His mother said she untied him a few hours before his death and he went to sleep with his brothers, but they later discovered he had died.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun