Husband shoots wife dead with 20 bullets

20 May 2015

BEIRUT: A Lebanese man, whose wife had filed charges against him for allegedly beating for the last 20 years marriage, shot her dead in their Mount Lebanon home Tuesday.

A security source told The Daily Star that Ali al-Zein killed his wife, Sara al-Amin, 47, using an assault rifle in the suburb of Dohat Aramoun, about 10 kilometers south of Beirut.

The source said Zein fired about 20 bullets into her body before fleeing the house around 5 a.m. He was arrested following a manhunt that lasted several hours.

One of the sons told Al-Jadeed his father had kicked his mother out of the house over the weekend following a row presumably linked to her pressing domestic violence charges against him earlier this month.

He said his mother returned overnight before the murder and got into a fierce argument with her husband, adding that he and his siblings woke up to the sound of gunfire, only to find their mother lying on the sofa soaked in her own blood with their father still holding his weapon.

A neighbor told Al-Jadeed that she shook her husband out of bed after being awaken by the sound of gunfire, and ran toward the sound of screaming, where she found the shooter outside his home.

I could see it in his eyes. He was angry at Sara because of the lawsuit, she spoke through sobs.

We always tried to bring them back together for the sake of her six children, but each time they fought, she said.

He [Ali] would always say he loved her and only recently promised to give up drinking. He bought her flowers and said he wanted to mend the relationship with her.

He deserves execution, she insisted as she lifted one hand to wipe away her tears. I hope he gets the death sentence.

The son said his father had been beating my mother for 20 years, adding: We want justice.

The victims lawyer, Ashraf Mousawi, said Sara had filed a lawsuit against her husband two weeks ago, accusing him of beating and torturing her over the last two decades.

The lawyer said he had advised his client not to return back to her husbands home.

He must suffer a heavy punishment for his crime, he said.