Photo illustration. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Twenty-six prisoners in Jib Jenin prison, in Western Bekaa, escaped through a ventilation opening, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the Bekaa reported on Monday.
Security forces managed to capture one of the escapees Monday morning, a security source said, adding that the army's intelligence services in the Bekaa later arrested seven more. Efforts were underway to locate the other detainees, including security searches in the Bekaa town of Brital, according to our correspondent in the region. Army personnel were guarding entry points into Brital Monday evening, as well as patrolling the Baalbeck highway.
Prison escapes have multiplied in recent months in a Lebanon ravaged by poverty and an economic crisis that has seen the value of law enforcement officers' salaries dramatically eroded due to the depreciation of the national currency.
Eighteen prisoners escaped from Amioun prison in Koura in November. Nine detainees escaped in October from the Fakhreddine barracks located near the UNESCO headquarters in Beirut. The same month, 19 inmates escaped from prison in Jounieh, in the Kesrouan region, while in August, some 30 inmates escaped from the Adlieh detention center in Beirut via a window after clandestinely bringing a tool into the premises. Some of the escapees were later apprehended.
Additional reporting by Sarah Abdallah.