Lebanese police in front of a detention center in Beirut, on Aug. 7, 2022. (Illustration photo/Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — A mother who admitted to “torturing” her 5-year-old child was arrested in Saida, southern Lebanon, on Tuesday, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced.
The Saida police were made aware of the situation by the General Prosecutor’s Office, which had been informed of two parents who were mistreating two children in their home in Saida. Officers went to the family’s home and found a 5-year-old boy sitting in a highchair with his legs tied, the ISF says.
The mother confessed to abusing her child, while the father denied harming him, but admitted that he was aware of the “torture” inflicted by his wife.
The parents, both Lebanese, were identified as A.A.S., born in 1987, and S.R., born in 1981.
The mother was arrested, but the ISF statement made no mention of action taken against the father. The couple’s two children were put in the care of their maternal grandparents temporarily, while they wait for a long-term plan to be settled by the Association for the Protection of Minors.
This arrest comes against a backdrop of increasing child abuse and child neglect in Lebanon, as reported last August by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund — a situation that is exacerbated by the socio-economic crisis straining many families in the country.