Lynn Taleb's maternal family in Minyeh, North Lebanon. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/Archive photo)
BEIRUT — A hearing in which North Lebanon investigating judge Samaranda Nassar is set to question several family members of 5-year-old Lynn Taleb, who died at the end of June following repeated sexual assault, got underway on Tuesday, according to several local media outlets.
Nassar will be questioning the four detainees in the case — Taleb's mother, uncle and maternal grandparents.
According to a senior judicial source, who recently spoke to L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity, Taleb's grandmother is suspected of withholding information and delaying the hospitalization of young girl before her death. Her 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.
Taleb was found to be suffering from internal bleeding eight days into a stay with her mother at her grandfather's house in Minyeh, northern Lebanon. The 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, Taleb's maternal grandfather, Fawaz Bou Khalil, was also arrested at the Hbeish police station in Beirut. Waad Bou Khalil was subsequently charged with attempting to conceal the crime.