Military personnel deployed on a road leading to the village of Arsal, Bekaa, in 2014. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — Military intelligence and a Lebanese army unit Friday arrested a prisoner who escaped the prison in Jeb Jenin, West Bekaa's administrative capital, after an exchange of fire in which the fugitive was wounded, the army reported in a statement Saturday.
The fugitive, a Lebanese, is serving time for "drug trafficking, shooting at the army, and for wounding a soldier on January 3," the statement said. An army and intelligence patrol arrested the man Friday in the locality of Nahle, while he was driving an unregistered Jeep Cherokee. He was accompanied by another fugitive, also a Lebanese national.
"The two men shot at the patrol, which responded and injured a man, before transferring him to one of the hospitals in the area," the text details. The other man was arrested, a Kalashnikov rifle was seized, along with ammunition and hashish. Investigation in progress."
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' wages plummet, because of the drastic depreciation of the Lebanese lira. In a country where weapons ownership is virtually unregulated, the army struggles to prevent violent incidents, armed settling of scores and of all kinds of trafficking.