Protesters in Saida hold a sit-in in support of Lebanese detainees in prison, on Friday, Feb. 6. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Dozens of people gathered in Saida and Tripoli on Friday to hold sit-ins in support of Lebanese detainees in prison.
The public protests come as an official agreement was signed the same day between Lebanon and Syria, which paves the way for the transfer of about 300 convicted Syrian detainees incarcerated in Lebanon’s overcrowded prisons back to Syria.
In Saida, the gathering, organized at the call of the detainees’ families and the youth of Bilal Ibn Rabah mosque, was attended by the deputy secretary-general of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in Lebanon, Bassam Hammoud, according to our regional correspondent.
Held under the slogan “Yes to the liberation of our Syrian brothers, no to the perpetuation of injustice against Lebanese detainees,” the rally took place as prisoners began their second week of hunger strike to demand a general amnesty, amid severe prison overcrowding.
A sit-in was also held at the roundabout of Bahaa Hariri mosque, at the northern entrance to Saida. Protesters held up portraits of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir as well as banners calling for his release and that of his companions, according to our correspondent.
Arrested in 2015 for leading deadly clashes in 2013 against the Lebanese army in Abra, a suburb of Saida, Sheikh Assir was sentenced to death for these acts, and to 20 years of hard labor by the military tribunal for other fighting in northern Lebanon.
The clashes occurred against the backdrop of Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria alongside the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and heightened tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.
Those who spoke at the rally in Saida welcomed the agreement on the release of Syrian detainees and their handover to Syrian authorities, while questioning why Syrian prisoners were being released while Lebanese remained incarcerated “when they were arrested as part of the same case.”
At the end of the sit-in, participants marched in a procession, chanting Islamic slogans calling for a general amnesty and the “purification” of prisons. In Tripoli, during the sit-in, a religious leader called for an end to “injustice” and welcomed the release of the 300 Syrian detainees.
Other demonstrations were also held in several regions of the Bekaa Valley, notably in the towns of Baalbeck, Hermel, and Arsal. In Baalbeck, residents blocked the international highway at the southern entrance to the town, near the Jabali roundabout, while protests in Hermel and Arsal were concentrated in front of local government buildings.
There, too, protesters denounced "selective justice" and demanded "equal treatment" between Lebanese and Syrian detainees, the rapid adoption of a general and inclusive amnesty law, and an end to prolonged detention without trial, calling on the Lebanese state to assume its responsibilities in this humanitarian and social issue.
The issue of detainees in Lebanon has returned to the forefront since a rebel coalition led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, which overthrew the Assad regime in December 2024, came to power in Damascus.
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