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  • 2016-06-20 (xsd:date)
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  • Three Syrian Refugees Assault 5-Year-Old Girl at Knifepoint? (en)
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  • In June 2016, online outlets began reporting a rumor that three Syrian refugees had raped a 5-year-old Idaho girl at knifepoint, that police were lax in investigating the case, and that news media were refusing to cover the story: The rumor made its way to a conspiracy-oriented web site, whose headline on the topic blared: REPORT: THREE SYRIAN 'REFUGEES; RAPE LITTLE GIRL AT KNIFEPOINT IN IDAHO; Furious residents accuse council of cover-up. The headline made no mention of the ages of the refugees involved and asserted that police had declined to act due to a language barrier: We contacted county prosecutor Grant Loebs to obtain first-hand information about the rumors. He confirmed to us that an incident did take place at the Fawnbrook Apartment complex in Twin Falls, Idaho, on 2 June 2016 involving a five-year-old girl, a seven-year-old boy, a ten-year-old boy, and a 14-year-old boy. Loebs said that the three boys were of Middle Eastern descent, but they were not Syrian and he had no information indicating they were refugees. Because the case is still being investigated and involves minors, Loebs was unable to disclose many of its details. However, he confirmed that police have indeed been aggressively investigating leads in the case, observing all normal procedural practices rather than declining to act due to any purported language barriers. Officers have also interviewed the girl and all of the boys involved, with the ten- and fourteen-year-old boys having been detained in juvenile custody during the ongoing investigation. Loebs told us there was no indication a knife was involved in the incident, and that no one was raped or murdered (although contact of a sensitive nature allegedly occurred). Moreover, he stated that the investigation was a police matter, not one involving the local city council (which has no jurisdiction in criminal cases). Loebs subsequently provided much the same information to local news media: Various officials attributed the spread of much of the misinformation reported about the case to locals opposed to refugee resettlement in their area: Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury later stated at a press conference that the boys involved were of Iraqi and Sudanese (not Syrian) descent, that something a lot less serious than a sexual assault was initially reported to police, and that none of the boys' families were congratulating them following whatever took place: Multiple news outlets have indeed covered the incident, and they have given only vague details of the disturbing case because its active status and the involvement of minors precludes officials from providing more detail: [NOTE: The photograph displayed at the head of this article is unrelated to this case and does not picture anyone actually involved in the reported incident.] (en)
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