West Bank couple charged with imprisoning girl
Feb 1, 2012, 8:18 AM
JERUSALEM (AP) – 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 Tuesday, 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 says the man beat his daughter, sometimes after his wife _ the girl’s stepmother _ egged him on. It doesn’t 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.
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