Twenty years later, Abdul Rahim comes home from Saudi prison to his mother’s embrace

Waiting outside the airport were relatives, friends and well-wishers who had followed his painful journey for two decades

Kozhikode: The prayers and patience of the global Malayali community finally found an answer on Thursday morning when Abdul Rahim, who spent 20 years in a Saudi Arabian prison, returned home, and emotions flowed when his mother hugged him.

“I’m thankful to each and every one who made this possible,” said Rahim with tears flowing down his cheeks.

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Rahim, a native of Kodampuzha in Farook, Kozhikode, landed at Karipur International Airport at around 7.30 a.m. after boarding an Air India Express flight from Riyadh late Wednesday night.

Waiting outside the airport were relatives, friends and well-wishers who had followed his painful journey for two decades.

As he stepped onto Kerala soil after years behind prison walls, the 46-year-old was visibly emotional.

With folded hands and tears in his eyes, Rahim thanked everyone who had prayed for him and supported him financially and emotionally during the long years of uncertainty.

He broke down at the airport, and the scenes were emotional as he met his relatives and friends.

But the person who waited the longest for his return was his aged mother, Fathima. For 20 years, her only wish had been to see her son once again before the end of her life.

Back at their ancestral home in Kodampuzha, she waited anxiously as crowds gathered to welcome home the son many feared would never return.

A year ago, she met her son for 45 minutes when he was in jail in Saudi Arabia.

Rahim’s ordeal began in November 2006, when the then 26-year-old travelled to Saudi Arabia on a house driver visa, hoping to support his struggling family.

Within weeks of reaching Riyadh, his life took a tragic turn.

Rahim had been assigned to care for Anas Al Fayis, the differently abled son of a Saudi family.

During a car journey, the tube of the boy’s life-support system accidentally became disconnected after Rahim’s hand reportedly touched it.

The 15-year-old suffocated to death within moments.

Though Rahim maintained throughout that it was an accident and not an intentional act, he was arrested in December 2006 and later sentenced to death by a Saudi court in 2012.

What followed was one of the biggest humanitarian campaigns witnessed among Malayalis worldwide.

When the victim’s family finally agreed to pardon Rahim in exchange for blood money, an astonishing Rs 34 crore was raised by Malayalis across the globe through the Abdul Rahim Legal Assistance Committee.

The collective effort turned Rahim’s seemingly impossible fight for survival into a story of hope and compassion.

His death sentence was officially cancelled in July 2024.

However, he still had to complete a 20-year prison sentence under Saudi public rights law before being released.

That wait finally ended this week. Abdul Rahim left prison as a middle-aged man, carrying the weight of two lost decades.

But as he returned home on Thursday, there was relief, gratitude and the quiet joy of a mother who finally got her son back.