The Daily Star - Parents arrested on suspicion of beating their baby to death, June 15 2012

BEIRUT: The parents of a 3-month-old infant were detained Thursday on suspicion of being responsible for their child’s death earlier in the day, security sources told The Daily Star.

The sources said Mahmoud Abdel-Razzaq Hawana, 22, took his daughter Ghina to Saint Therese Hospital in the Baadba town of Hadath, and told doctors that she had had a cold before experiencing a sudden deterioration in her health.

After an examination by the surgeon on duty at the hospital, doctors discovered that the child had been severely beaten, and had suffered multiple fractures as a result.

According to the doctors, the baby had died sometime between 10 and 11 a.m. Thursday. Both parents were detained at the hospital, and are now being questioned at the Shiyah police station in Beirut.

The sources said the child died as a result of severe beatings sustained over a long period of time, and that she had already been admitted to hospital a month earlier.

Hawana is the second infant in less than a month who is believed to have fallen victim to domestic violence, after police arrested the parents of a 9-month-old child admitted with severe brain injuries.

After the news of Hawana’s case emerged, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour rushed to the hospital, where doctors were trying to determine Hawana’s cause of death.

“We will take legal measures – and anyone proven guilty will not escape punishment ... this is an unacceptable act of monsters,” Abu Faour told reporters at the hospital.

“This is a strange case. I am very surprised that people have become this monstrous, and there needs to be urgent action by the government on the matter,” he added.

The minister also said that hospital administrations should inform the Internal Security Forces and Social Affairs Ministry upon admitting such cases to their facilities.

“It appears that there were also older injuries on her body, which weren’t treated,” he said.

In a Cabinet session later in the day, Abu Faour referred an urgent draft law to the government to require all hospitals to immediately report such suspicious cases to the authorities.

“The government cannot continue to work this way. We can’t sit and wait for an incident like this to happen for us to take action. All ministries should be ready,” said Abu Faour.

The baby’s mother, Mariam Nabil Hazeni, is 18 years old, the sources said.

Speaking to reporters at the hospital, the doctor who examined the infant said that the strange bruises on her body made him suspect that she had been severely beaten. He also maintained that the hospital promptly informed police of the doctors’ suspicions surrounding the case.

“Her father told me that she was sick, and that he had given her some [aspirin],” the doctor said.

The sources added that the father argued with his brother at the hospital, exchanging accusations of who was responsible for Ghina’s death.

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