Lebanese rape suspect on oxygen support

Rabih Haddad, the Lebanese man suspected to have raped his Ghanaian house help at his Airport Hills Residential home in Accra, is on oxygen support at the Ridge hospital.

The 39-year-old accused was expected to reappear before the court on December 19, 2017 after his plea for bail was rejected and remanded into Police custody by an Accra Central District Magistrate Court presided over by Arit Nsemoh.

Starrfmonline.com has gathered that Haddad is begging for bail for the sake of his health. His bail application will now be heard in court Wednesday morning

Background

The victim in this rape and assault case, who speaks only Ewe and French, said the suspect beat her after his apparent displeasure with the coffee she had prepared for him.

Following the incident, he dragged her to a bedroom and raped her, according to the victim.

She said he slapped her twice in her face, finally overpowered her and dragged her to his bedroom where she was raped.

She had also told the Daily Graphic newspaper that she is consistently harassed for sex by her boss anytime his wife was not at home.

Probe into misconduct

As the rape case has unraveled, the issue of suspected police misconduct has come up for discussion.

Initial reports indicated that when the case was reported to the Airport Police, the officer on duty is reported to have accompanied the victim to the Airport Hills residence of the suspect, supervised the packing of her belongings, and only ensured her November salary of Ghc350 was paid her without any arrest being effected.

ASP Tenge said investigations were also being carried out into the suspicions of misconduct and negligence “whatever it is that we find out, or we believed due process was not followed, those ones will be handled internally.”

But shedding some light on the victim’s first visit to the police where an assault complaint was made, she noted that “to her [the rape victim], she didn’t even want to pursue it.”

“All that she wanted was the assistance of the police to be able to accompany to her to her boss’ house so she collects her belongings so that is what the police did. She also demanded that she has worked in that house for the period of a month and therefore, she has the right to collect her monthly salary.”

No complaints were made of previous rape and the issue of rape had not even come in the reports, ASP Tenge added.