ALBAWABA - A new development has shocked many in the case of the Lebanese woman Zainab Maatouq, 33, who was found killed at the hands of a Syrian man who works at Universel Residence Hotel.
After many rumors were spread on social media that Zainab was raped to death, a new report emerged clarifying that the Lebanese young woman was not raped but attacked to death.
Lebanese investigators confirmed that a Syrian man named Khalaf Bargash, who has been in hiding since last Saturday, is the main suspect in the murder of Zainab Maatouq, and that he was a cleaner at the hotel where she worked in the Raouche area overlooking the sea in Beirut.
Investigations revealed that the victim was not raped, as was rumored on social media, but the Syrian man Bargash violently assaulted her and beat her severely before throwing her into the hotel storeroom.
Al Arabiya.net reported quoting sources from the family that the forensic doctor’s report proved that there were no signs of rape after the body was examined, but the beating that Maatouq was subjected to was very strong, specifically in the head.
As for the cause of the crime, the available information suggests that it is linked to Maatouq's discovery of a secret related to Bargash or something he had done inside the hotel, which prompted him to kill her, so that she would not reveal his secret.
In detail, according to sources and local media, Maatouq went to work on the day of the crime at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and a sharp argument occurred between her and Barghash in the hotel lobby, before he followed her to a service room where she was severely beaten, which led to her death from internal bleeding in the throat. The head was hit as a result of one of two sharp blows to his hands, after which he fled after his identity was revealed and his name was circulated.
