The court has upheld justice for two girls who were harassed by a 30-year-old man in Beirut, sentencing the accused to prison.
In detail, the two girls went to the street carrying lottery tickets to sell. A man approached them and began verbally harassing them, offering 20,000 Lebanese pounds to engage in an indecent act. The young girls, frightened, moved towards the rocks by the beach, but the man followed them, continuing to talk to them until one of them left. The remaining girl managed to escape his grasp when a bystander nearby hastily called the security forces, who arrived and arrested the assailant.
The accused denied the charges during interrogations and at the criminal court, where he was tried in person after being detained in June following a previous absentia ruling against him in March 2023, which sentenced him to five years in prison.
The criminal court was not convinced by the defendant's denial, considering the conducted investigations, particularly the statements of the two minor girls and the witness who reported the incident, highlighting that the accused followed the minors (of Syrian nationality), sat beside them, and offered them money for sex. The court also noted that the older sister's close proximity to her younger sister prompted her to scream, as well as the accused’s own statement during preliminary investigations admitting to having pursued the girls for sex.
The court was convinced that the accused, B. Sh (30 years old), attempted to assault a minor through violence after pushing her and covering her mouth. Consequently, he was convicted of this felony. The court decided to impose the previously mandated prison term and reduced the sentence to one and a half years while considering his two months of pre-trial detention sufficient. The court did not rule for any financial compensation since the minors did not claim damages against the convicted individual.