A cardboard piece with the following written on it: “Roumieh strike day 6 to the Friday preachers, remember us today in your sermons.” (Photo sent by the Committee of Prisoners’ Families in Lebanon to L’Orient Today)
The Committee of Prisoners’ Families in Lebanon has called for a demonstration in Tripoli’s Nour Square following this Sunday's afternoon prayers in support of more than 400 Roumieh prisoners who have been on hunger strike since Monday, after one prisoner was hospitalized, according to a statement sent to L’Orient Today on Friday.
The prisoners in Building B, a detention wing in Lebanon's largest central prison that primarily houses Islamist, jihadist, and Salafist inmates, began the open-ended hunger strike in protest of the suspension of Lebanon’s general amnesty law, following an appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM)’s parliamentary bloc with the Constitutional Council last week. Parliament passed the law on Aug. 12, and President Joseph Aoun promulgated it on Sept. 4.
The Constitutional Council suspended the law on Sept. 10 pending a ruling on the appeal.
A video sent to L’Orient Today by the Committee of Prisoners’ Families shows several prisoners carrying detainee (J.S.), who is taking part in the hunger strike, toward the prison gate. According to the committee, he was later taken to hospital.
In its statement, the committee said that "insisting on perpetuating injustice through the appeal against the general amnesty law aims only to undermine all the efforts that have recently intensified to turn the page on the past and open a genuine path toward comprehensive social reconciliation."
It added that "those who supported and sponsored this appeal bear direct responsibility for delaying the release of our sons and leaving them to face death amid tragic and inhumane detention conditions lacking the most basic necessities of life."
The committee said its call comes "amid ongoing popular, religious, and political reactions to the suspension of the amnesty law, particularly among Lebanon’s Sunni community."
Inmates at Roumieh prison, including Islamist detainees being accused of "terrorism," began an open-ended hunger and water strike on Monday and are refusing to take medication.
