Daily Star - Prosecutor charges Salateen with premediated murder, November 26th 2011

By Youssef Diab

BEIRUT: A Syrian man was formally charged Friday with the brutal murder of a woman in Kesrouan last Monday.

The Mount Lebanon public prosecutor, Claude Karam, charged Fathi Jabr Salateen with the premeditated murder of Myriam al-Ashkar in Sahel Alma earlier this week, a charge that usually carries a death penalty.

The body of Ashkar was found covered in blood Tuesday on the outskirts of Our Lady of the Annunciation monastery in Sahel Alma.

Salateen, who worked as a janitor at the monastery, told police he raped Ashkar before killing her by cutting her throat Monday afternoon. According to a security source, however, the medical results indicated that Salateen did not rape Ashkar, and the accusation did not appear in the official charge sheet.

Karam had Salateen transferred to the custody of investigative judge in Mount Lebanon, Ziad Makanna, who interrogated Salateen and issued an formal arrest warrant against him.

Jounieh police had handed Salateen over to Karam after questioning the suspect for three days under Karam’s supervision. According to sources close to the investigation, Salateen committed the crime alone after having planned it in advance, and no accomplices were involved.

A judicial source said that Salateen was conscripted in a Syrian Intelligence unit in the Bekaa from 2001 to 2003, when he was discharged.

Judicial sources denied rumors of a deal that would see Salateen handed over to the Syrian embassy in Lebanon to try him in his home country.

“There is no such request and even if it were, it would rejected immediately as the authority to try him belongs to the Lebanese judiciary only, given that the crime was committed on Lebanese land and that the victim was Lebanese,” the source said.

Metn MP Sami Gemayel voiced Friday his party’s rejection of extraditing Salateen.

“The crime took place in Sahel Alma in broad daylight and we will not be satisfied unless the perpetrator is tried by the Lebanese judiciary according to the country’s laws,” Gemayel said, also promising the victim’s family that he will follow up on all developments connected to the crime.

For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea telephoned Myriam’s brother, Tony Ashkar, and offered his condolences to the victim’s family and relatives as well as Sahel Alma residents, and asserted that the Lebanese Forces would support Ashkar’s family in their search for justice.

The Municipality of Jounieh issued a statement in which it offered condolences to Ashkar’s family and the residents of Sahel Alma, and condemned the “ugly” crime.

The statement also called on judicial authorities to hand down the harshest possible punishment to the perpetrator, and asked that the relevant authorities crack down on illegal foreign workers in Jounieh and across the country.

The Beirut Bar Association also condemned Ashkar’s murder and reminded officials of their duty to confront crime in the country by arresting the perpetrators and trying them without delay.

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