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.

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.