Lebanese police outside a detention center in Beirut on Aug. 7, 2022 after an escape of detainees. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — The military intelligence arrested a man in Beirut's southern suburbs, suspected of escaping from the Beirut Justice Palace prison in August, the Lebanese Army said in a Monday evening statement.
The suspect was arrested on Monday in the Ruwaiss area after he escaped from the Beirut Justice Palace prison on Aug. 7.
According to the army's statement, he allegedly confessed during the interrogation to "using drugs and stealing around 43 motorcycles from several areas in the southern suburbs during the period of his escape from prison."
The investigation began with the detainee under the supervision of the competent judiciary, the statement concluded.
More than 30 detainees had escaped in early August from the Adlieh detention center in Beirut via a window after clandestinely bringing a tool into the prison, security and judicial sources had reported.
According to a judicial source close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "some detainees are Lebanese and others [are] foreigners, notably Syrians and Palestinians."
Other prison breaks have been recorded in Lebanon in the last few months. These escapes come in light of the economic crisis that has plunged more than 80 percent of Lebanese below the poverty line and forced many members of the country's security forces to seek second or alternative jobs to secure a better income.
The unprecedented economic crisis has further aggravated poor conditions inside Lebanon's prisons, where overcrowding and lack of medical care regularly cause protests and riots by inmates.