Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe

Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
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Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe

Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)

Inmates of Lebanon's Roumieh prison (Northeast of Beirut) called on the concerned authorities to approve the General Amnesty Law, to avoid a health catastrophe that may be caused by the spread of the Corona virus among them.

In a statement on Sunday, the prisoners said that a large number of them suffered from “chronic pulmonary diseases and diabetes”, adding that there was no thermometer in prison, and the pharmacy did not provide masks or sterilizers.

They warned that they would begin a hunger strike in the coming days, if their demands were not met.

Under the same slogan, a number of families of prisoners gathered on the road leading to the Presidential Palace in Baabda, in parallel with the holding of the cabinet session, calling on President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab for general amnesty for their children, for fear of the spread of the Corona virus in prisons in all regions.

In this regard, the head of the Human Rights Committee, MP Michel Moussa, called for “the distribution of prisoners in vacant government buildings.”



Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

More than 240 people, mostly combatants, were killed as intense fighting approached Syria's northern Aleppo city after the opposition launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said Friday.
On Wednesday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied Turkish-backed factions launched an attack on government-held areas in the northwest, triggering the fiercest fighting since 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said fighting reached two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the main northern city of Aleppo, where the group’s artillery shelling on student housing killed four civilians, according to state media.
"The combatants' death toll in the ongoing... operation in the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides has risen to 218," since Wednesday, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In addition to the fighters, it said 24 civilians were killed.
Syrian ally Russia launched air strikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian had been killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier, said the Observatory which on Thursday had reported an overall toll of about 200 dead, including the civilians.