Roumieh prison, Lebanon's largest, in Metn. (Credit: Marwan Assaf)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has instructed the swift appointment to accelerate of a judge from the Court of Cassation, an officer from the Internal Security Forces and a representative of the Red Cross to inspect prisons and monitor their conditions until the parliament reaches a decision on the issue of prisoners' amnesty, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Mikati expressed his demands during a meeting with the Interior Ministers Bassam Mawlawi and Justice Miniter Henri Khoury on Monday at the Grand Serail, as Islamists in Lebanon have been asking for a general amnesty law following the downfall of Assad regime in Syria.
After the meeting, Khoury stated that the meeting focused on "the situation of detainees and prisons in Lebanon, in addition to the issue of detainees in Syria," adding that "there are some measures that will be taken in this regard.”
On the issue of untried prisoners, he said: “This issue is being addressed and there is a keen follow-up to this file and we hope that this matter will be addressed.”
For years, Relatives of detainees imprisoned for ‘terrorism’ have been regularly mobilizing in Lebanon, particularly in Tripoli (North) and Saida (South). They demand a general amnesty and the release of several Lebanese and Syrian prisoners, including some religious figures accused of terrorist activities.
After Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the relatives of the Islamist detainees resumed their protests. The fall of the Syrian regime and the rise to power of an Islamist group in Syria reignited their hope of releasing the prisoners.
Among those arrested in Lebanon is sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, arrested in 2015 for leading deadly clashes against the Lebanese Army in Abra, a suburb of Saida, in 2013.
In a video broadcast last Thursday, Assir called on the Lebanese authorities to close the case of the Islamists and to build good neighborly relations with the Syrian population.