Lebanese MPs hold emergency meeting on draft general amnesty law, call for accelerated committee work

BEIRUT — A group of Lebanese MPs held an emergency expanded meeting on the draft general amnesty law, amid ongoing political consultations with top state officials and parties, calling for accelerating committee work to reach "a fair and balanced agreement on the long-debated file," the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Tuesday.

The MPs include Waddah Sadek, Ashraf Rifi, Fouad Makhzoumi and Ibrahim Mneimneh. Discussions on the general amnesty law have been postponed in Parliament due to lack of prior political agreement and following tensions in committee sessions

The meeting took place amid ongoing communications and consultations with the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Prime Minister, as well as various political forces and authorities. The goal, according to the statement, is "to ensure a suitable national and political environment to reach a fair and balanced formula for this national and humanitarian issue."

The MPs stressed that the "general amnesty file is a national and humanitarian issue par excellence, aimed at lifting injustice from large segments of the Lebanese population across different groups." They noted that the proposal "has reached an advanced stage of discussion within joint parliamentary committees, with significant progress made in narrowing differences on many key provisions."

They called for dealing with the current stage with the highest level of national and political responsibility, and warned against any steps or approaches that could slow down the process or obstruct reaching the desired outcome.

They emphasized that ongoing political meetings and consultations should support and complement the work of parliamentary committees, not replace it, stressing that the proper place to resolve the issue remains within constitutional institutions and Parliament.

They concluded by calling for an urgent meeting and the opening of joint committee sessions within a maximum of one week to complete discussions and finalize all articles of the draft general amnesty law, in preparation for submitting it to the plenary session for debate and approval according to constitutional procedures.

The debate over general amnesty in Lebanon remains deeply sectarian, with each community tending to view detainees, collaborators and war crimes through the lens of their own historical experiences, political alliances, and collective grievances, seeking amnesty for different categories of detainees, much to the dismay of others.

While families of Islamist detainees in Lebanon are actively demanding general amnesty, Christian leaders, foremost among them Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, have called for the inclusion in amnesty of Lebanese citizens residing in Israel. It is in this context that the general amnesty bill, called for to relieve overcrowded Lebanese prisons, particularly of detainees who have never stood trial, sparked heated debate in the parliamentary committee on April 6.