The door of the "Garderêve" crèche sealed by order of the Ministry of Health, July 11, 2023. (Credit: Hussam Chbaro)
BEIRUT — On Tuesday, Mount Lebanon investigating judge Rania Yahfoufi issued a warrant for the arrest of Garderêve day-care center employee J. B. S., who filmed another employee abusing children at the day-care center, a judicial source told L'Orient-Le Jour.
Questioned by Judge Yahfoufi, the employee revealed that the video dated back some three months (to April), the judicial source said.
The employee was charged with failing to assist children facing danger and failing to denounce the violence at the appropriate time.
In videos posted on social media networks in early July, the nursery employee is seen force-feeding and hitting young children. Other children can be heard crying in the background while the employee that recorded the video laughs.
The owner of the nursery and the employee that committed the violence were arrested on July 18 on orders given by Judge Yahfoufi, following proceedings launched by Judge Ghada Aoun, Public Prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal. Aoun respectively charged the perpetrators with attempted murder and complicity.
J. B. S., who worked as a cleaner at the day-care center, was also questioned by Judge Aoun, who decided to release her. A judicial source told L'Orient that Aoun considered it was thanks to the films leaked by the employee that public action was taken to stop the violence, and that such whistle-blowing should be encouraged, even if it comes late.
However, according to another judicial source, Aoun has not appealed Judge Yahfoufi's decision, which according to the aforementioned source, accuses the employee of having disclosed the videos only "in her own interest, at a time that suited her." The assistant delivered the videos after she had come into conflict with the owner of Garderêve and left her job, the source said, stressing that she should have produced them at the time of the event "for the sake of the children who were defenseless."
The judge is said to have arrested the assistant to emphasize her criminal responsibility, although her sentence will be far less than the penalties imposed on the owner and the other crèche employee, added the same source.
The arrest of J. B. S. came after she was heard as a witness by Judge Yahfoufi on Tuesday morning. According to a source close to the investigation, there are indications that she herself is also guilty of "physical and verbal violence" against the children.
In the next judicial stage, the three people arrested will be brought before the criminal court. The proceedings are likely to be lengthy, especially as the judicial recess runs until September 15.