‘Arab-Israeli couple held girl at home for years'
JERUSALEM - The Associated Press
Palestinian Amjad Awad (back, 3rd R) is escorted by Israeli prison guards after his sentencing at an Israeli military court in the West Bank city of Jenin. REUTERS photo
Israeli authorities have indicted an Arab-Israeli couple on charges they imprisoned the man’s daughter for years in their West Bank home and encouraged her to kill herself.
According to the indictment filed on Jan. 31, the girl was held in a bathroom or in another room of the house, sleeping uncovered on a blanket. She was let out only at night to do housework. The indictment said the man beat his daughter, sometimes after his wife, the girl’s stepmother, egged him on.
The indictment does not identify the people involved. But 20-year-old Baraa Melhem spoke to the Associated Press last month after Palestinian security forces in the West Bank rescued her.
She said she had been imprisoned for 10 years by her father, Hassan Melhem.
