Rapist and killer of young girl placed under arrest warrant

BEIRUT — The chief investigative judge of Mount Lebanon, Nada al-Asmar, issued an arrest warrant Thursday for H.H., a Syrian national, after questioning him in the case of the rape and murder of a ten-year-old girl in Haret Naameh (south of Beirut).

The suspect was apprehended by security services ten days ago, immediately after committing his crimes. An ISF statement specified that “he is the brother of a neighbor of the family,” adding that he took the girl and her brother to the beach, on a sand dune facing the northern coast of Damour, where he assaulted the little girl and then killed her by striking her head with stones before hiding her body under a pile of stones among reeds.

The attacker then struck the victim's five-year-old brother, who witnessed his sister’s murder and began to scream. He dragged the boy to the sea, leaving him for dead. The little boy survived and was found by local residents, soaked, with injuries to his face and head.

According to our information, Judge Asmar has sent the case file to the Mount Lebanon Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, which should soon provide its (non-binding) opinion — a necessary step before the indictment is handed down.