A man arrives at Roumieh prison, northeast of Beirut, to visit an inmate on April 7, 2006. (Archive photo: Ramzi Haidar/AFP)
BEIRUT — Six detainees have died since the Lebanese government passed the general amnesty law around a month ago, a security source told L'Orient Today on Tuesday.
Passed on Aug. 12 by Parliament and enacted on Sept. 4 by President Joseph Aoun, the general amnesty law was suspended last Thursday by the Constitutional Council (CC) after the Free Patriotic Movement filed an appeal against it.
The last inmate died on Saturday in the Halba Prison in Northern Lebanon after developing kidney failure, according to the security source. The Lebanese Prisoners’ Families Committee had announced the death of the inmate, identifying him as Nehmeh al-Hajj, from Ain Saadeh, noting that he faced major difficulties in securing the necessary treatment and medication.
"Nehmeh was just one step away from freedom, the amnesty law could have returned him home to receive treatment with dignity, had it not been for the appeal filed by MP Gebran Bassil, which froze that hope and turned his last chance of survival into a slow death sentence," the committee added.
Detainees in Lebanese prisons often suffer deplorable conditions resulting from chronic overcrowding and a failure to have basic needs met or access to healthcare. Many detainees languish in their cells for years awaiting trial.
Inmates at Roumieh prison began an open-ended hunger and water strike Monday, refusing to take medication, according to the committee.
The Constitutional Council must rule on the admissibility of the appeal within the next nine days. It then could decide to suspend the law’s effects while ruling on its merits.
Months of discussions were needed to reach a version of the General Amnesty law that won consensus within the Sunni community, which had been divided over the issue of Islamist detainees. Bassil previously said that his party is challenging the general amnesty law for "victims among military personnel, victims of crimes, and Islamist detainees who have not been tried."
