Police arrest figure in child abuse case

A man who last year was at the center of an international child abuse case was arrested Thursday on charges of forgery and burglary.

Arash Hashemi, 37, was in the Clark County Detention Center on Thursday night, according to jail records. His bail was listed as $40,000.

Hashemi, 37, previously ran afoul of authorities last year after the 3-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, Samaneh Rezaei, was nearly beaten to death at his home.

The couple took the child to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center on Aug. 25, 2006, but fled after "medical personnel confirmed the injuries were consistent with severe child abuse that had been occurring over a long period of time," according to a criminal complaint filed on Aug. 29, 2006.

"Hashemi is very wealthy and has ties to Mexico and Germany," the report notes.

In December 2006 prosecutors withdrew initial charges related to felony child abuse against Hashemi, but they warned him that he still could face a grand jury indictment for the harm done to the child. District Attorney David Roger said Thursday that he was unaware of whether any subsequent action had been taken by the courts. He said that to the best of his knowledge detectives still were investigating the child abuse case.

Rezaei, who was in the United States illegally, was deported back to Germany before she could face criminal proceedings in Nevada. The child eventually also was returned to Germany where her father, Murat Celebi, a citizen of Turkey, lived at the time.