Women who confessed to killing her own children in Choueifat. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — A Syrian mother has confessed to killing her two young children in Lebanon’s Choueifat area, south of Beirut, after initially claiming she found them unresponsive at home, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) said in a statement published Wednesday.
“At dawn on Feb. 28, two children were admitted in critical condition to a hospital in the Hadath area: a boy born in 2020 and his sister born in 2017, both Syrian,” the ISF said. “The girl soon passed away, and three days later her brother also died. According to the forensic doctor’s report, both children suffered a sudden lack of oxygen, and the cause of death was consistent with suffocation.”
“During the initial investigation, the children’s mother, born in 1996, Syrian, stated that she discovered their condition when she tried to wake them for the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan,” the statement added. “She said they were unresponsive and not moving, so she contacted a man, also born in 1996 and Syrian, who helped transport them to the hospital, something he confirmed in his statement.”
The ISF said that, based on these findings, specialized units from the Information Branch launched procedures to uncover the circumstances of the deaths, particularly after the forensic report raised "suspicions of foul play."
“On 27 March, the mother was summoned for questioning. As the investigation progressed and she was confronted with evidence, she confessed to suffocating her two children with a pillow while they were on her bed at their home in the Sahraa Choueifat area,” the ISF said. “She then left them in that condition for about an hour before contacting someone for help. She added that she committed the act due to psychological pressures she had been experiencing.”
“Legal measures have been taken against her, and she has been referred to the competent judicial authority,” the statement concluded.
