According to the results of the 1912 Ottoman prison survey, Beni Saab's prison in Beirut province contained 447 prisoners – two females and 445 males. The local nizamiye court convicted 373 prisoners of less serious offences (cünha ve kabahat), and the other seventy-four individuals were awaiting trial. Among the 373 sentenced inmates, three males were convicted of deviant sexual behaviour (fi'il-i şeni). In modern Turkish this term refers almost exclusively to sodomy, but in late Ottoman times it also included any action considered to be ‘deviant’ sexual behaviour not allowed under Islamic law, including prostitution. It also implies consensual participation by all involved. Violent, deviant sexual behaviour (cebren fi'il-i şeni) had its own category in the prison questionnaire and was considered a serious offence (cinayet), carrying with it a more severe punishment.

In the case of these three male prisoners incarcerated for ‘deviant sexual behaviour’ at the Beni Saab prison, all were sentenced to incarceration from three to six months. It is very likely that they committed their crimes together based upon several interrelated pieces of information gleaned from the administrative organisation of Beni Saab, geography, and the prison survey. Beni Saab was located on the eastern-Mediterranean coast between the port towns of Yafa (Jaffa) to the south and Hayfa (Haifa) to the north on the Plain of Sharon. As a district (kaza) it possessed a minimum security prison for criminals convicted of minor and lesser crimes from the local area. In 1850, Beni Saab consisted of twenty-seven villages (köyler).