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Lebanese rape suspect will die in custody - Lawyer

Haddad Rabih, was arrested around 11:45 pm on Sunday after he was said to have forcibly had sex with the victim around 5 pm on Saturday in the absence of his wife and other occupants of his household.

A bail application by Mr Raphael Poku-Edusei, the lawyer for the suspect, Rabih Haddad, was dismissed by an Accra Central District Court on the basis that it lacked jurisdiction to grant bail.

According to Mr Edusei, his client had a serious medical condition and would die if remanded in police custody.

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He said Haddad had a heart condition and had once fainted in police custody.

“We risk trying a dead man. To confine him to a police cell means the next thing is a burial,’’ he said.

But the court, presided over by Ms Arit Nsemoh, refused the bail application and rather advised his lawyer to apply for bail at the High Court.

“I do not have original jurisdiction and so apply for bail at the High Court,’’ she said.

The presiding magistrate has since remanded the accused into police custody and adjourned the case to December 19, 2017.

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The victim, whose name has been withheld said ever since she started work in November, she has been harassed by him for sex anytime his wife was not at home.

According to her, last Saturday’s event was the fourth time the suspect had raped her.

She said the suspect threw her out of the room after raping her twice on Saturday and she bled profusely.

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She was, however, able to get help from some police officers on duty at a nearby house, who arrested the suspect and took him to the Airport Police Station.

But a policewoman on duty led the team back to the suspect’s house and allegedly took GH¢350 from the suspect as the salary for the victim for the month of November 2017and gave it to her.

The victim subsequently packed her belongings out of the suspect’s home and went to her father’s.

She was, however, advised to report the matter to the East Legon District Police Command a day after the incident, where she was given a medical report on Sunday to undergo a medical examination.

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