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Conflict Incident Report

Mount Lebanon man kills wife with assault rifle

Date of incident: 
May 19, 2015
Death toll: 
1 person
Number of Injured: 
0persons
Actors/Parties Involved: 
Lebanese Civilians

BEIRUT: A Lebanese man, whose wife had filed charges against him for allegedly beating her over 20 years, shot her dead in their Mount Lebanon home Tuesday.
A security source told The Daily Star that Ali al-Zein killed his wife, Sara al-Amin, 47, using an assault rifle in their village of Dohat Aramoun, about 10 kilometers south of Beirut. The source said Zein fired about 20 bullets into her body before fleeing the house around 5 a.m. He was arrested following a manhunt that lasted several hours.
One of the sons told Al-Jadeed TV his father had kicked his mother out of the house over the weekend following a quarrel presumably linked to her pressing domestic violence charges against him earlier this month.
He said his mother returned overnight before the murder and got into a fierce argument with her husband, adding that he and his siblings woke up to the sound of gunfire, only to find their mother lying on the sofa soaked in her own blood with their father still holding onto his weapon.

A neighbor told Al-Jadeed that she shook her husband out of bed after being awaken by the sound of gunfire, and ran toward the sound of screaming, where she found the shooter outside his home.

"I could see it in his eyes. He was angry at Sara because of the lawsuit," she spoke through sobs.

“We always tried to bring them back together for the sake of her six children, but each time they fought ,” she said. “He [Ali] would always say he loved her and only recently promised to give up drinking. He bought her flowers and said he wanted to mend the relationship with her.”
“He deserves execution,” she insisted as she lifted one hand to wipe away her tears. “I hope he gets the death sentence.”
The son said his father “had been beating my mother for 20 years,” adding: “We want justice.” The victim’s lawyer, Ashraf Mousawi, said Sara had filed a lawsuit against her husband two weeks ago, accusing him of beating and torturing her over the last two decades. “He must suffer a heavy punishment for his crime,” he said.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/May-19/298506-mount-l...

Primary category: 
Shooting
Secondary Category: 
Murder
Classification of conflict (primary): 
Individual acts of violence
Violent incidents which do not have a specific or a known political agenda but are caused by the general proliferation of weapons, of trained and untrained soldiers or militants, by the general inefficiency of the Justice system, and past-traditions and histories of violence within society.