Children kept in stable by father for 20 years

**Susan** Wed 27 Aug - 19:19

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:59PM BST 27 Aug 2008

A Palestinian man has been accused of treating his two mentally ill children like animals by locking them naked in a stable for 20 years.

In what could be one of the worst cases of child abuse in Palestinian society, one of the region's most conservative and occasionally brutal, Ibrahim Kandeel Masalmeh is also accused of beating his children and feeding them with slops.

He was detained by Palestinian police during a sweep for drugs and gun smugglers in the village of Beit Awa near Hebron in the West Bank.

While looking for hiding places they came across a dusty shack, suitable for animals, near Mr Masalmeh's house, with a man and woman inside.

"We heard a voice and movement inside a locked shack so I ordered it to be opened,'' said Samih Saifi, the police commander for Hebron district.

"I saw a naked man and a semi-naked woman, in a shack roofed with zinc, that us usually used for sheep.

"I saw a leather pot filled with water, and some barley but there were no sheep.''

He said the woman was aged 42 and her brother 38.

"The father claimed that he feeds them well, but I doubt what he said,'' the officer said.

"We will take the father to court, on charges of mistreatment of their children, and locking them in an inhumane way.

"The neighbours told us they did not know there were two human beings locked away for 20 years and treated like animals.

"The father beat them violently.''

The owner of the house allegedly told investigators the two people were his children and that he had hidden them after they developed mental problems.

He said he wanted to keep them hidden from his neighbours because he felt "ashamed''. The two alleged victims are currently receiving psychiatric help.

Shame lies behind some of the worst Palestinian domestic violence. Young women who develop relationships with men their families disapprove of can be murdered by their brothers or fathers in so-called "honour killings".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/2631486/Palestinian-children-kept-naked-in-stable-for-20-years-by-their-father.html