Lebanese man arrested for sister´s honour killing

˝The 24-year-old victim was single and apparently had a boyfriend,˝ the security official told AFP.Her brother admitted shooting her.

BEIRUT, March 12, 2010 (AFP) - A Lebanese man has been arrested in northern Lebanon for killing his sister earlier this week in what authorities described as an honour killing, a security official said on Friday.

"The 24-year-old victim was single and apparently had a boyfriend," the security official told AFP. "(Her brother) admitted shooting her twice in the head to cleanse the family honour."

The woman was only identified by her initials, as was her 28-year-old brother. Her body was discovered on Tuesday on the main road of the village of Hakr al-Daheri, in the northern Akkar region.

"This kind of crime is not common in Lebanon but we have a few every year," the official said.

Lebanese law stipulates extenuating circumstances for so-called honour killings, in which male relatives kill female kin they suspect of illicit behaviour with men.

In 2007, Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning honour killings as repulsive acts that contradict Islamic law.