Crimeupdated 1h ago3 min read
MapISF Arrests Suspect in Murder of Priest Samir Dou in Jbeil, Lebanon
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ISF arrested a suspect in the priest murder in Jbeil. Suspect identified as Arkan al-Naddaf, 22, Syrian from Aleppo.
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Priest found dead
Internal Security Forces arrested a suspect in the murder of priest Samir Dou in Jbeil, after the priest was found dead inside his home in Ain Girn in the Zahlé District of Jbeil and had been unreachable since Wednesday afternoon. The priest’s phone last pinged in the city of Jbeil around 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday before the phone was turned off and contact became impossible, and the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai issued a statement expressing “deep sorrow and profound sadness” for the murder of priest Samir Dou. L’Orient-Le Jour said Father Samir Mikhaël Daou served the parishes of Hsoun and Farhet in the Jbeil district and was found dead after having been unreachable since Wednesday, while the ISF announced on Friday that the investigation continues under the supervision of the competent judicial authority.
The arrest accounts also placed the body in Ain Jrain in the Jbeil district, where LBCI reported the priest’s family discovered it in a house owned by him that he did not regularly frequent, and the report said investigators opened an inquiry and carried out fingerprinting and collection of clues. Simon Abi Ramia told L’Orient-Le Jour that “suspicions would have fallen on Syrian workers who were working with Father Daou in harvesting his olives before his disappearance,” as the investigation moved from the discovery to the search for a suspect.
Arrest and confession
Naharnet said the Internal Security Forces announced the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Father Samir Daou in the Jbeil district and added that “The investigation is ongoing under the supervision of the competent judiciary,” while MTV identified the suspect as Arkan al-Naddaf, 22, from the Syrian governorate of Aleppo. The same account said an ISF Information Branch force raided a building inhabited by around 400 Syrian nationals on the Jbeil-Amchit coastal road at 4:00 AM, and it said the suspect confessed to the crime during interrogation. التلفزيون العربي said Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces announced the arrest of the suspect in the killing of priest Samir Dou in the city of Jbeil, confirming that the investigation under the supervision of the competent judiciary continued the day after Dou was found murdered inside his home in Ain Grin.
The report said local newspapers relayed information about the detainee’s confession without releasing official details about the content of his statement or the motive behind the crime, and it also said the suspect was found in possession of the priest’s phone and his car keys. جنوبية described a raid on the Bilan Center in Jbeil that resulted in the arrest of the suspect, the so-called Arkan Nadav, and it said security forces found decisive evidence including “The mobile phone of the victim, the priest Samir Dou.”
Calls for justice
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi condemned the crime and called upon competent security and judicial authorities to “follow up on the investigations with all seriousness and firmness, to uncover the circumstances of this crime,” as the case moved toward judicial handling. L’Orient-Le Jour said the ISF did not provide details about the suspect’s identity or the motive of the crime, while it also reported that investigators from the ISF Judicial Police opened an inquiry, carried out fingerprinting, and collected clues at the scene. The التلفزيون العربي report said search operations included forests extending from Ain Grin toward al-Fidar and reviewing surveillance camera footage after the victim’s phone last signal was detected in Jbeil, and it said the published information did not determine whether the worker had previously worked with the priest.
جنوبية said the suspect confessed during early investigations to committing the crime attributed to him, and it added that the investigation awaited completion of legal measures and referral of the file to the competent judiciary to impose stringent penalties. In parallel, annahar said Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai urged security and judicial authorities to pursue investigations with utmost seriousness and resolve to uncover the circumstances of the crime, identify those responsible, and bring them to justice, as the arrest shifted the focus from the disappearance to the prosecution process.