Blog
Lama Hajj

Man Who Beat His Wife To Death Gets 5 Years In Prison

5 years in prison for a murder that was so gruesome and heinous most of us talked about it for months after the fact.

Manal Assi died in February of 2014 after her husband, Mohamad Nheily, beat her for over 6 hours, bashed her head with a pressure cooker, and wrapped her in a carpet to try to cover up his crime. Tala and Sara, Manal’s two daughters, were home and witnessed the whole ordeal.

Nheily’s official sentence reads 5 years of prison time, and with every year served in Lebanese prison being 9-months and not 12, in reality, this man got a little over three years for his murder.

I won’t go in to the ridiculous details of the case and how it turned into a bunch of clowns trying to prove that Manal was cheating on her husband, which ultimately caused her death. We’re only killing Manal again when we perpetuate any lie or excuse given by the monsters running the show.

Nheily admitted that he went to work after the gruesome murder, locking the doors and preventing any family members from helping Manal, or maybe even saving her life. He returned hours later and allowed an ambulance to take her then practically-dead body away. This is not the marking of a man who was overwhelmed by passion, this is a man who shows no remorse.

As often as possible, it is important to look on the brighter side of things. It’s fun to scroll through lists and photographs that show us how wonderful Lebanon is, and how special it’s people are. But we can’t deny the ugly truths of our nation; women’s rights are laughable and neglected. Women are repeatedly battered and abused in their homes, and then they are killed in their homes; and yet little changes on an institutional level.

This story, like many others, will undoubtedly die down once the media parade is over. It will die down and join the stories of Sara al-Amine, Roqaya Monzer, and many other women who we have failed to protect, both as a government and as a people.