An entrance leading to the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. (Credit: Correspondent Michel Hallak)
One of the fugitives among the 19 detainees who escaped last weekend from the Ghazir police station in Kesrouan (north of Beirut) was arrested Monday night in the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, according to information from our local correspondent.
The arrest was carried out by the joint Palestinian force inside the camp, which handed over the fugitive to the Lebanese Internal Security Forces' (ISF) intelligence branch. The recaptured convict is an Egyptian, born in 1987.
This is the fifth escapee out of 19 that the ISF has retrieved after they managed to flee the Ghazir police station on the night from Saturday to Sunday. These detainees had dug a hole in the building's wall, and their escape went unnoticed for about an hour and a half, allowing them to distance themselves from the site and evade immediate capture. An internal investigation has been opened as questions arise about potential negligence or complicity of the guards.
Escapes have multiplied in Lebanon, plagued by poverty and a severe economic crisis since 2019, as the value of law enforcement officers' salaries has been dramatically reduced due to the depreciation of the national currency and as prison infrastructure is in poor condition.