Mount Lebanon’s First Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour issued an indictment Tuesday on the controversial case of the husband of Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram.
The famous singer’s husband, Dr. Fadi Al-Hashem, was charged back in January with murder in self-defense after shooting dead a man who had broken into their home. Hashem alleged that the man, identified as 30-year-old Mohammad Al-Moussa, was trying to rob their house.
That was evident in the video recorded by the surveillance camera in the house, which showed Al-Moussa sneaking into the villa, armed with a pistol and his face covered with a mask.
The attempted robbery unfurled back then with Al-Moussa reaching the bedroom of the couple’s three children, and threatening to kill them and the father if the latter doesn’t guide him to the money and jewelry safe. Al-Hashem rushed to bring his pistol and discharged it on Al-Moussa, killing him with 18 shots.
Back then, Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun released Hashem after he was arrested for three days.
The issued indictment stated that Al-Hashem was “in an intense emotional state as a result of his fear for his family.”
According to Al Jazeera, in a more recent decision, Judge Mansour considered that Al-Hashem’s act applies to the crime of intentional killing stipulated in Article 547 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which provides for hard labor for up to 20 years.
He stated in the merits of his indictment that “Al-Hashem’s exaggeration in firing this amount of bullets at the dead body expresses that he has exhausted all means of self-defense, and it appears that it is the result of intense anger and fear on his wife and children.”
Yet, the investigative judge has placed the criminal act under self-defense, according to Article 228 of the Penal Code, which exempts the perpetrator from punishment if the crime is in the context of legitimate self-defense.
He has now referred the case to the Criminal Court in Mount Lebanon for the final verdict on Al-Hashem’s innocence of intentional killing.
