Numbers of crime victims

Statistics issued by the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces reveal that the murder incidents resulted in 81 casualties in 2009. This number rose to 95 in 2010, while 136 lives were lost in 2011, i.e. up by 41 victims or 43.1%. In 2012, the numbers of murders registered stood at 193, i. e. up by 41%.

 

 

شاهد الجدول كاملا

 

 

 

Murders
 

The most prominent crimes committed in Lebanon in 2010, 2011 and 2012 are:

• Serial crimes targeting taxi drivers and resulting in the death of 10 people. Criminals resorted to shooting the victims in their heads, then tossing the bodies on the streets and using the victims’ cars for a while before burning them. The serial killings started in April 2011 and ended in November when the criminals, who were 5 Syrian brothers, were arrested. They were: Michel, George, Aziz, Moussa and Maurice Tanalian. The latter three had obtained the Lebanese nationality and were living in al-Naba’a. Investigations failed to find out the motives for the crimes.
• Hanna Michel Abi Samaan from Ehden in the Qada’a of Byblos killed his 31- year old wife Silva Charbel Somain in September 2010 and then committed suicide by shooting himself, leaving two orphaned children behind. The cause of the crime remained unknown although it was reported that the couple were getting divorced.
• Hadi al-Hajj Dib, 25, killed his mother Nawal Youness and his five siblings, Amin, 23, Maha, 20, Manal, 18, Zahraa, 15, and Zaher, 15, and committed suicide afterwards. The incident occurred at the family’s residence in Ras al-Naba’a and the real motives behind it remained undercover.
• The bodies of Charles Ghaled and his wife Mariam were found in the Kharba town in the Qada’a of Byblos in August 2011. The couple had disappeared a month before and investigation suspected that Charles might have killed his wife, then committed suicide although the couple had been married for only a few months. The motives are yet to be revealed.
• The finding of the bodies of Wartosci Janbazian, 52, and her son Dany Assaf, slain and stabbed in Sin el-Fil in April 2011. Security forces arrested the criminals which included Syrian nationals Hagop Mardiossian, 28, and Hrant Arshalos, 21, and the fugitive Syrian Kurd Ziad Mando. It was reported that the victim Dany Assaf used to practice magic and that he cast two spells on the murderers, which disturbed their lives and drove them to seek revenge.
• A crime committed in al-Khraibeh in Baalbeck on the first day of Eid al-Fitr in September 2011 when Fayez Issa shot the children of his sister Mahmoud, Nasser and Ghaleb in addition to Alya, Mahmoud’s wife, and Mohammad Kanaan and his wife Rasha. It was reported that the dispute was over a piece of land of no more than 1000 m2.
• The Syrian janitor at the Our Lady of the Annunciation monastery, Fathi Salatin, raped Miriam Ashkar, 28, and stabbed her near the convent where she had gone to pray in Sahel Alma in November 2011. He later wrapped her body and threw it down the valley. The Investigative judge requested the execution of the murderer.
• The finding of the bodies of Ghassan Dalal, his wife Nissrine Awde, and their three children Mahdi, 21, Radwan,10, and Baqer, 4. According to the narratives, Ghassan killed his family and then committed suicide. The oldest son Mohammad was the only family member who survived as he was not home at the time of the killings.
• A murder committed with a knife in Ketermaya in April 2010 resulted in the death of Youssef Abou Merii, 79, his wife Kawthar and their two granddaughters Amina, 9, and Zeina, 7. The Egyptian worker Mohammad Saleem acted upon provocation carried out by the victim’s niece, for he intended to expose her immoral demeanors. Ketermaya’s residents reacted violently to this crime, pulling the murderer out of the ISF vehicle, stabbing him to death and dragging his body throughout the town before hanging him naked in the center of the town.
• The Syrian worker Walid Ali al-Hasan, 16, slaughtered a 77-year old Lebanese woman Joulia Sahyoun in July 2011 in Dahr el-Sawan in the Qada’a of Matn after she managed to run away when he attempted to rape her.
• A one and a half year old girl was battered to death by her stepmother in Byblos in May 2012.
• The ninety-day-old baby Ghina Abdul Razzaq died at Saint Thérèse Hospital in Hadath in June 2012 after being brutally battered by her parents.
• Mona Jaweesh, 49, tried to commit suicide in September 2012 after having killed her husband George Fawaz, 55, at their home in the town of Sehayle.
• Charbel Challitta tricked his friend Roland Shbeir, 22, into accompanying him to the Jleisseh town in Byblos, killed him and put his body in his car’s truck in October 2012. Chalitta attended Shbeir’s funeral later and even helped carry his coffin. The murder was reportedly committed after Shbeir had requested his friend to pay him back his USD 3000 debt.