The Mrouj pharmacy in Metn, whose owner was murdered on April 19, 2022. (Credit: Layal Dagher/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — The main suspect in the killing of pharmacist Leila Rizk, who was found dead at her pharmacy in the Metn area in April, has been arrested, an Internal Security Forces spokesperson confirmed to L’Orient Today on Wednesday, after the ISF issued a statement with updates on the case. According to the statement, the arrest took place on April 28, while a second suspect in the case has fled the country.
Here’s what we know:
• The suspect arrested is a Syrian national born in 1998, who suffers from an intellectual disability, the ISF said in its statement issued Tuesday, adding that he used to frequent the pharmacy of the victim, and would at times not leave it unless the victim contacted someone to remove him. Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed that he carried out the crime by strangling the victim, the ISF statement added.
• Based on the reference of the competent judiciary, the arrested suspect was examined by a psychiatrist, the statement said, explaining that as a result of the examination and a medical examination, it was found that he suffers from an intellectual disability.
• According to the statement issued by the ISF, the second suspect, a Syrian national born in 2003 who has a history of theft, left Lebanese territory through an illegal crossing after committing the crime; however, ISF patrols raided this suspect’s house and seized his personal belongings to remove DNA samples and compare them with the traces collected from the crime scene; the samples matched those taken from the victim’s body.
• The pharmacists’ syndicate called for pharmacies across the country to remain closed the morning after Rizk was found dead as a mark of respect for their colleague murdered at her place of work. Describing the crime as “heinous,” pharmacies’ syndicate head Joe Salloum said in a statement at the time that Rizk was murdered “in broad daylight on Monday … while carrying out her humanitarian duty inside her pharmacy in the Mrouj area in Metn.”
• Salloum had at the time also asked the interior minister to “intensify efforts to achieve justice and expose the perpetrators and bring them to trial so that they receive fair retribution as soon as possible, in order to ensure that the pharmaceutical sector continues to carry out its duty towards, and does not have to completely stop working to preserve their security and lives.”