Lynn Taleb's maternal family in Miniyeh, North Lebanon. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/Archive photo)
BEIRUT — North Lebanon investigating judge Samaranda Nassar issued an arrest warrant for the maternal grandmother and uncle of 5-year-old Lynn Taleb, who died at the end of June following repeated sexual assault, a senior judicial source confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour on Friday.
According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the grandmother is suspected of withholding information and delaying the hospitalization of young Taleb before her death. The uncle, on the other hand, is accused of rape and intentional crime.
"Strong evidence" incriminating the uncle is also being examined by the courts, added the source, who explained that the maternal family repeatedly refused to hospitalize the little girl in order to conceal the sexual assault that led to her death.
Lynn Taleb was found to be suffering from internal bleeding eight days after a stay with her mother at her grandfather's house in Miniyeh, northern Lebanon. Their stay took place during the Eid al-Adha holiday, when the assaults are said to have occurred.
Two separate forensic reports confirmed that the young girl had been raped several times before her death.
The child's mother, Waad Bou Khalil, was arrested shortly after her death. On July 17, the maternal grandfather, Fawaz Bou Khalil, was also arrested at the Hbeish police station in Beirut. The mother was subsequently charged with attempting to conceal the crime.