Handicapped Israeli Arab siblings locked in cellar 'for years'
BEIT AWWA, West Bank (AFP) — For years Nawal, 42, and her brother Bassam, 39, were kept captive by their father in a dark and filthy cellar sealed with an iron door because they are mentally handicapped, Israeli Arab police said on Thursday.
Police discovered the pair by chance in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday as they were hunting for suspects in Beit Awwa, a tiny West Bank village near Israel, and handed them over to an institute for the handicapped.
"We were on an operation in Beit Awwa to arrest some wanted men... and had reached a darkened basement when we found two naked human beings," said the head of the Israeli Arab police force in Hebron, Colonel Ramadan Awad.
"The place stunk like a stable and the ground was covered with hay."
He said the owners of the house tried to stop the police from entering the basement.
"They shouted saying that if we go near the place, their son Bassam would 'cut us to pieces'. We later learned that he is mentally disabled," he added.
Awad identified the pair's father as an imam who works in a local mosque and said he was arrested by police for abusing his children, but did not give his family name.
However, the stepmother of Nawal and Bassam denied that she and her husband were abusing the siblings and accused the police of fabricating the truth.
"They are mentally disabled but we are taking very good care of them. The police are lying," said the stepmother Fatima.
"My husband was married to his maternal cousin and they had seven children. Five of them were born with various types of handicaps and have all passed away. Only Nawal and Bassam were left and we could not place them in any institution."
She acknowledged that she and her husband locked up the siblings but said it was for their own protection.
"We lock them up to keep them away from people and children out on the streets who could harm them. We are not holding them prisoner," she said.
Khaled Zaatara, who runs the Al-Ihssan institute for the mentally handicapped, said that for many parents having a disabled child is considered a stigma.
"Some people hide their mentally disabled children and don't speak about them because they are afraid this will harm their reputation," Zaatara said.
He said there are many cases of mentally handicapped people in the region but that the Al-Ihssan institute has only room for 120.
"On weekends many parents refuse to come to take their children home and this is very bad."
Source:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZK-lqaCxA2eKpyc8oZHhsQy9QFA-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This quranimals are obviously cruel 
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