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Suicide Attempts among Syrian Prisoners Put Lebanon’s Deportation Standards under Scrutiny

A video clip leaked from a Lebanese prison is circulating about an attempt by prisoners to commit suicide.
A video clip leaked from a Lebanese prison is circulating about an attempt by prisoners to commit suicide.
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Suicide Attempts among Syrian Prisoners Put Lebanon’s Deportation Standards under Scrutiny

A video clip leaked from a Lebanese prison is circulating about an attempt by prisoners to commit suicide.
A video clip leaked from a Lebanese prison is circulating about an attempt by prisoners to commit suicide.

Four suicide attempts by Syrian prisoners in Lebanon have cast shadow on the difficult situation in prisons, prompting international human rights organizations to monitor the extent to which standards for deporting Syrians have been adopted after the expiration of their sentences in Lebanon.
An informed security source explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that the prisoners, who tried to hang themselves inside Roumieh prison, were “two brothers and two of their relatives, and they were among those who defected from the Syrian army months after the start of the uprising in Syria and joined armed organizations, and are being tried in terrorism cases in Lebanon.”
The security source revealed that the prisoners “tried to commit suicide after they were informed that Lebanese authorities had handed over the two brothers’ sibling to the Syrian regime on the first of March.”
The Lebanese government and the United Nations signed an agreement stipulating that no Syrian person would be extradited to his country if he was a defector from the regime forces or who joined the Syrian uprising.
The security source confirmed that United Nations organizations present in Lebanon are “closely monitoring the cases of Syrians tried in Lebanon, and tracking their fate after they have served their sentence.”
The growing number of Syrian prisoners exacerbates the prison crisis in Lebanon now that they represent 28.5 percent of the prison population, according to informed sources.
“There are 1,850 Syrians distributed in Lebanese prisons, in addition to dozens in temporary detention centers,” the sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
For his part, lawyer Mohammad Sablouh, the representative of a number of Islamist prisoners, warned of the danger of extraditing wanted Syrians to their country under the pretext of reducing the burden on Lebanon’s prisons or in implementation of judicial rulings requiring deportation after the end of the sentence.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the pretext of the high number of detained Syrian nationals does not justify the extradition of Syrian dissidents to their country. The number of opposition prisoners “is very, very small compared to those prosecuted for ordinary criminal charges”, he noted
“The suicide attempt in Roumieh prison is disturbing, and may encourage others to end their lives instead of being handed over to the Assad regime, which continues to torture them and then liquidate them,” Sablouh stated.

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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.