Lynn Taleb's mother's side of the family's residence in Minieh, Tripoli, north Lebanon. (Credit: Mohammed Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The case of Lynn Taleb, a 5-year-old girl who died in early July after repeated sexual assault, has been referred to the investigating judge in North Lebanon, Samaranda Nassar, the judge confirmed to L’Orient Today.
Taleb's mother, Waad Bou Khalil, was arrested first shortly after her death. On July 17, Taleb's grandfather, Fawaz Bou Khalil, was also taken into custody at the police station in Hobeich.
Nassar insisted that "nothing is yet confirmed as the investigations are still ongoing."
“After preliminary investigations, the prosecutor at the appeal court in the north, Judge Matilda Touma, pressed charges against the grandfather of the victim, Lynn Taleb, on charges of assault and intentional killing of the 5-year-old child,” Nassar confirmed to L’Orient Today.
The young child’s mother was charged with attempting to cover up the crime.
Repeatedly raped
On July 1, 5-year-old Taleb died of sexual assault. She suffered internal bleeding, which led to her death eight days after a stay with her mother at her grandfather’s house in Minieh, North Lebanon.
Two separate forensic doctors’ reports confirmed that Taleb had been repeatedly raped prior to her death.
Taleb and her mother were staying with her grandfather during the Eid al-Adha holiday, when the attacks are alleged to have taken place.
In recent months, violence against children has been on the rise in Lebanon.
Last week, the Village de paix et d'amour association, meant to care for children in danger or abandoned by their parents, was closed over alleged sexual abuse and other crimes by staff members.
In mid-July, an arrest warrant was issued for the owner and an employee of the Garderêve day-care center in Jdeideh, Metn, after videos surfaced of the employee repeatedly striking children.
On July 18, an infant was found abandoned in a bag on a street in Tripoli. Just one day later, two babies aged — three months and one year — were found abandoned in a box under a bridge near Nahr Ibrahim in the Jbeil area.
