The medical condition of dozens of inmates on a hunger strike for more than two weeks inside Lebanon’s largest prison has become “dire”, according to a legal campaigner. Ambulances enter daily to take [dozens of] them away because their condition is dire,” Mohammed Sablouh, a Lebanese lawyer, told Al Jazeera. The inmates at Roumieh prison went on a hunger strike on September 12 in protest against the suspension of a general amnesty law, which could have granted an immediate release or reduced their sentences.
Protests have also been staged in Lebanon’s second city of Tripoli against the suspension of the law, which has a provision to release inmates jailed for petty crimes. Many of the prisoners on hunger strike were arrested for their solidarity with the Syrian revolution against President Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December 2024 after more than 10 years of bloody war. The Free Patriotic Movement, one of the country’s largest parties, filed an appeal before the Constitutional Council over concerns that some of the inmates were charged with “terrorism”.
The Constitutional Council is expected to issue its verdict next month. Lebanese prisons are notorious for being overcrowded and thousands of inmates spend years behind bars without trial. Lebanon’s current prison population stands at about 8,500, nearly double its capacity.
The law passed on August 12 aimed to address overcrowded prison conditions in the country. Some died by suicide due to prolonged trials and repeated postponements,” Sablouh said. The Lebanese lawyer blamed judicial delays for the large number of inmates, many of them arrested for petty crimes.
He pointed out the failure of the judiciary “to adhere to Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which sets a limit for pre-trial detention: two months for misdemeanours, renewable for an equal period, and six months for felonies, renewable for an equal period [up to a maximum of one year].”
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