Belgian Influencer Faces Trial for Infant Daughter’s Death in Hotel Room

During this trial, the investigators reviewed the report drawn up by the forensic doctor at the request of the investigating judge in charge of the case, after the reconstruction of the events, carried out on August 7, 2019. During the reconstruction, Soraya Sahli recounted her actions on the night of February 18 to 19, 2019. She says she arrived in her hotel room around midnight and went down to the reception at 3 a.m. to ask for help after finding that her baby was no longer breathing.

The forensic doctor, who attended this reconstruction, explains in his report that the accused, according to her account, did not try to resuscitate her two-month-old daughter who was no longer moving. Another disturbing fact noted by the doctor: the absence of interaction by Soraya with her baby between midnight and 3 a.m. when she went down to call for help. "She does not feed her, she does not change her, she does not check if she is sleeping well," he observes in his report.

Soraya Sahli had told the police who questioned her after the infant’s admission to the emergency room of the Queen Fabiola University Children’s Hospital (Huderf) in Laeken, that she had "trapped" Lydia between two cushions on the bed to take a shower. Upon her return, she found her 3-year-old daughter sitting on one of the cushions, with Lydia underneath. Panicked, she went down to the reception to call for help.

According to the doctors, the baby, in addition to asphyxiation, had two skull fractures, one dating back about two to three weeks and the other about a week. Despite the care provided, Lydia finally passed away seven days after her admission to the hospital. Soraya denies having killed her daughter, even though she admits to having been "negligent" and partially responsible for Lydia’s death.