Doctor Confesses to '200 Abortions' after ISF Rescues 75 'Sex Slaves'

A detained doctor has confessed to carrying out “nearly 200 abortions,” the Internal Security Forces has said in a statement, a day after it said it busted Lebanon's largest known sex trafficking ring and freed 75 mainly Syrian women.

"This is the largest sex trafficking ring we've uncovered since the outbreak of the Syrian war," a Lebanese security source told AFP.

Security forces also arrested a doctor and a nurse who worked for the traffickers.

"During their interrogation, the doctor admitted to performing nearly 200 abortions" for the captive women, the ISF said in a statement.

The security source also said that "an eight-month-old baby, likely the child of one of the rescued women" was found during the raid.

Even before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, Syrian women had been pushed into the illicit sex trade in neighboring Lebanon.

"However, as with any war, conflict has made Syrian women and children even more vulnerable," the security source said.

"They pay the highest price."

On Thursday, the ISF said the members of the ring were arrested in the Jounieh region.

It said the freed women had suffered “beating and psychological and physical torture” and were “forced to work in prostitution under the threat of having their naked pictures distributed, and other tactics.”

“Detectives raided the nightclubs and apartments where the women were being held and liberated them, arresting 10 men and eight female workers,” the ISF said.

It noted that the eight female workers were acting as “guards” and that they were “guarding and managing these apartments.”

“Two of the ring's masterminds are still on the run while the freed women were handed over to a number of NGOs at the request of the relevant judicial authorities,” the ISF said.