Release of the husband of Roula Yacoob the victim on domestic violence in Akkar

Roula Yacoob’s husband was released with no prosecution following the legal instructions of Judge Alaa Al-Khatib requesting halting the prosecution and confirming in a 13-page report that the deceased did not succumb from the beating as this was not proven in the post mortem exam and there were no marks of abuse on her body and she was not beaten on that particular day.  According to judge, thorough investigations were carried out and involved the appointment of 4 medical committees of 16 physicians.  The first two committees included two forensic doctors each, the third committee included five physicians selected by the Order of Physicians in Beirut whilst the fourth included seven doctors chosen by the Orders of Physician of Beirut and of Tripoli.   The physicians included radiologists, brain surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedics and forensic doctors,
The head of the medical committee who was entrusted with the task of preparing the report on the cause of death of Roula Yacoob, Dr. Claude Semaan, noted that the committee could neither establish nor refute whether the beating was the cause of death and could not also ascertain whether there is not a congenital malformation which has caused death because the post mortem examination was undertaken quite late after the time of death.
For her part the president of Kafa, Zoya Rouhana, was quite surprised by the decision and confirmed that Kafa will pursue this matter with the family of the victim.  The news and the release of the victim’s husband also came as a shock for the family and friends of Roula in Halba and Akkar.  They confirmed that their daughter did not die of natural causes but suffered injustice along with her family.  The family lawyer, Raymond Yacoob, noted that he was studying all necessary legal channels to appeal this judgment and so that justice can be done.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Akhbar 25 January 2014