Riots at Roumieh prison, east of Beirut, renewed on Thursday to pressure the Lebanese parliament to adopt a general amnesty law and slash the prison year from 9 to 6 months.
The rioting began on Wednesday night and continued till noon Thursday in an attempt by prisoners to pressure the parliament that was in session. Some of them even carried out mock hangings.
However, lawmakers failed to adopt the draft-law and referred it to parliamentary committees “for further review and amendments.”
Asharq Al-Awsat spoke by phone with some of the inmates. One of them said that the prisoners suspended their rioting “to avoid a confrontation with the guards ... who are not the reason behind our suffering.”
“The prisoners had received promises that the general amnesty draft-law would be adopted during Thursday’s session. However, unfortunately, the draft-law was referred to the committees, which are the graveyard for laws.”
“We don’t want to resort to escalation so that we don’t get into a confrontation with security forces and we don’t harm ourselves,” the prisoner added.
Lebanon suffers from overcrowded prisons where inmates, who live in poor conditions, demand better treatment and speedier trials.
Roumieh prison houses more than 4,000 prisoners, around three times its intended capacity, and has long been infamous for the poor conditions in some of its blocks.
A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the rioting on Wednesday and Thursday was limited to block B of the prison, where Islamist inmates are incarcerated. The source said that some of the block’s gates were broken down but there were no confrontations between the protesters and the security forces tasked with guarding the prison.
When the prisoners were informed about the draft-law’s referral to the parliamentary committees for further discussion, they issued a statement accusing “the parliament of once again disregarding the voice of conscience and humanity.”
They called for “exceptional measures” to resolve the problem of overcrowded prisons that have suffered from “injustices in arrests and trials.”
