Roula Yaacoub’s Husband Found Not Guilty After Beating Her To Death
Five years after the violent murder of Roula Yaacoub, the 33-year old victim of domestic abuse and mother of five, a Criminal Court in North Lebanon issued a verdict on the accused suspect, her husband Karam Al-Bazi. He was acquitted and cleared of all murder charges against him due to what the court deemed to be a “lack of evidence”.
Shortly before Yaacoub’s passing, one of her daughters had reportedly fled the house to inform neighbors that her father was beating her mother with a stick. Sadly, the horrors witnessed by the daughters and the abuse they had all lived through for years had not been enough evidence for the Court.
A similar verdict had been passed shortly right after Yaacoub’s death clearing the husband of murder charges after what was deemed to be an inconclusive autopsy report and witness statements, according to Reuters.
This, along with the murder of Manal Assi and Cristelle Abou Chakra, sparked enough public outrage and led to protests resulting in the approval of Lebanon’s first law against domestic violence.
Yaacoub’s mom clings to a photo of her murdered daughter.
Nearly five years later, these efforts seem to have gone to waste and it feels as though the victims of domestic violence are being killed all over again with the issuing of the verdict in Yaacoub’s murder.
Even long after their passing, the burden of proof seems to lie on the victims. Not only do they live in a country that fails to provide minimal protection from domestic abuse, but they should also make sure that there is enough evidence they were brutally murdered, because being beaten to death in front of their families and children is apparently not sufficient.
There are no national statistics on domestic violence in Lebanon. But according to a BBC report, campaigners say that one woman is killed by her husband every month on average, while thousands are subjected to physical or verbal abuse every year.
