TikTok pedophile ring: Woman arrested on suspicion of 'seducing' victims

A woman implicated in the case of a pedophile network operating in Lebanon via the social network TikTok was arrested Friday night, bringing the number of suspects arrested to date to 11, a judicial source confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour, requesting anonymity.

A well-known blogger on social networks was responsible for "seducing" the victims before handing them over to the network. The woman, who used several different pseudonyms, was arrested on a search warrant.

Details of the pedophile ring, in which some 30 people are said to be involved, began to come to light last Wednesday, when local media reported on the case, following the decision of the parents of eight children, more than a month ago, to lodge child abuse allegations with the Public Prosecutor's Office against one of the suspects. The head of the cybercrime unit of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), Patrick Obeid, then began investigating the case with the minors and their families.

Among those arrested are a well-known TikTok hairdresser and clothing retailer, a dentist, a photographer, a man who transferred funds between gang members, a cab driver and three minors.

Other suspects are believed to be abroad, prompting Tanios Sahgbini, public prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, to send rogatory letters to the countries in which they are believed to be located, with a view to obtaining mutual legal assistance. He also issued two arrest warrants, via Interpol, for two suspects: one in Dubai and the other in Sweden.