The man who allegedly fatally beat his daughter, a minor with disability, in Dibbin, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon, stands against a wall. (Credit: Internal Security Forces)
BEIRUT — A man fatally beat his daughter, a minor with disability, in Dibbin, Marjayoun, South Lebanon, Lebanese Internal Security Forces announced in a Sunday statement.
The ISF said the young girl, Z.Z., born in 2014, was admitted to a Marjayoun hospital on Aug. 12. Police found that the girl was initially "admitted to the hospital as a result of a sharp rise in temperature," before her father discharged her, signing a pledge to take her out "at his own risk."
"As a result of the examination of the body by the forensic doctor, he stated that the death was caused by the presence of air in the lung membrane in addition to bruises in various parts of her body," the ISF statement added.
"It was suspected that [the man] had beaten his daughter, which led to her death," the ISF statement added.
On the same day, a patrol from the Information Division arrested the man, Q.Z. in the town of Dibbin, according to the ISF.
"During interrogation, he admitted that his daughter had special needs and suffers from paralysis and severe malnutrition, and that he had beaten her several times in order to stop her from crying, and denied that he had assaulted her," said the ISF statement.
Lebanon has recently witnessed a "distressing" surge of child abuse and child abandonment, the country's chief advocacy and communications coordinator of UNICEF recently told L'Orient Today.