WTF
Myriam Dalal

This is the Face of the Alleged Child Rapist Arrested in Beirut Last Week


(Photo via Facebook.com)

This is a photo of Michel Nader, the 28-year-old man who was arrested in his Geitawi home last week after he confessed to raping as many as ten children, according to Al-Jadeed TV. Police uncovered video and photographic evidence of the crimes following a search of his apartment.

Meanwhile, Dr. Roger Bekhazi, court expert and psychologist, tells MTV news that Nader may face as little as five years behind bars because he won’t face charges for individual crimes committed against each victim. Rather, he will be subject to “one [charge] for all [the victims].”

In an article published on Wednesday, the Daily Star newspaper raises important questions about the frequency of these kinds of cases in Lebanon and the infrequency of reporting them: “only a tiny fraction of victims speak out, let alone open a police investigation,” Lynn Zarif, a graphic designer who started a blog for victims of sex abuse to share their stories, told the paper.

“In most of the cases,” she says, “[the abusers] were parents or a relative. They were not strangers.”

The NGO KAFA, which stands for “Enough Violence and Exploitation,” published a study in 2008 on child sexual abuse in Lebanon, finding that up to 16.1% of kids in Lebanon are molested yearly, of which 55.8% happen at home.

This raises the question of whether “The Beirut beast,” as Nader was described by #WTF