The ISF was on a relentless manhunt since Tuesday evening for the gunman responsible for the death of 10 people.
The gunman, Mazen Harfoush, was found and arrested in Ainbal on Wednesday night, April 22nd, a day after the shootings.
According to reports by al-Akhbar newspaper, he was found in the garden of a villa where he was “sitting calmly,” reports Naharnet. He did not resist arrest despite being on the run since the incident.
He reportedly confessed to committing these crimes in a calm and collected manner, claiming that he “suspected” that his wife was having an affair with his brother Fawzi.
According to his reported confession, he first killed his wife by stabbing her to death in their bedroom. Her body had over 13 stab wounds. He then changed out of the bloody clothes and went to meet his brother Fawzi.
“A judicial source told the AFP news agency that Harfoush had invited his brother to join him on a hunting trip to the Baakline river, where he killed him with a hunting rifle,” said Naharnet.
After hiding Fawzi’s body, Mazen went on to kill his younger brother Karim, accusing him of knowing of the affair.
On his way to kill Karim, he killed whoever came in his way, shooting down six innocents, including two children.
Once he came in close distance to his brother Karim, he killed him with two gunshots. The tenth murder was random.
When he was asked why he killed seven innocent people, he said that he merely lost control.
This crime is being called an “honor killing” even though, according to experts, honor killing involves planning and by more than one family member, and targets the person deemed to have dishonored the perpetrator(s).
In this case, there is a mass killing of individuals, including kids, most of them total strangers to the perpetrator and his claimed “suspicion.”
It is a multiple-crime, adding that there is no honor whatsoever in killing whatever the excuses.
Unfortunately, in Lebanon, many tend to “justify” the killing of spouses or daughters by their legal guardians as honor-crime, especially in courts, when most cases are actually domestic violence and/or femicides.
Again, there is no honor and no justification whatsoever in the killing of a spouse or a daughter or a mother.
In the current case, many have voiced out on social media their disgust of the justification of the killing of women over ‘honor.’ It is now up to the justice system to weigh this crime for what it really is without justification.
