BEIRUT: Judge Randa Yakzan asked police this week to reopen an investigation into the death of a woman whose husband allegedly filmed her suicide, after her family raised concerns that he could have encouraged the act.
The judge asked the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces to expand the investigation in light of documents collected by the family of Amina Ismail, a judicial source told The Daily Star Thursday.
The family, which sought information on the husband, Kifah Ahmad, before and after the incident, suspects that he drove his wife to the point of suicide, the source said.
In August, a video surfaced on social media websites of a man filming his wife as she plunged to her death from their eighth-floor balcony of their new home in the Beirut neighborhood of Ramlet al-Baida.
The couple married some seven months ago and moved to Angola, where Ahmad works in the diamond business.
The couple had recently returned from Belgium and were staying with Ahmad’s family in Ramlet al-Baida in a house facing their new apartment. The couple were to stay there until renovations in the new property were finished, the source said.
The original investigation was closed after foul-play was ruled out by police and it was believed that Ismail’s suicide was likely related to psychological problems.
The husband also claimed Ismail was taking medication for anxiety, possibly leading to the suicide. The autopsy showed no recent drug use by Ismail.
Investigators believed Ahmad was filming the new apartment when he saw his wife sitting on the balcony ledge.
According to a report published by local newspaper Al-Akhbar Thursday, the family used a technical expert to analyze the video where their daughter jumped from the balcony to see if it could have been staged.
Al-Akhbar also added that investigators filed a request with authorities to retrieve the telecommunications data for Ahmad’s phone call to find out whether he was the one who called Civil Defense teams who arrived 45 minutes later.

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27/09/2013
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