Relatives of Islamist inmates held at Roumieh prison protested Friday in Tripoli, lashing out at the government’s failure to fulfill its promise to hasten the trial and release their loved ones.
The demonstrators vowed to maintain their peaceful protest actions until their loved ones return home.
Nearly 350 people, including women and children, marched from the Grand Mansouri Mosque and gathered at Nour Square. They held banners mocking the government and demanding the release of the inmates.
“Congratulations to the judicial system in Lebanon for winning the first prize internationally for the longest period of detention without trial,” one placard read.
More than 100 Islamists have been held at Roumieh without trial since 2007 over alleged links to Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist group that fought the Army in Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp that summer.
The relatives of the detainees have held several protests in the past while inmates themselves have also rioted.
As a result of the mounting pressure, the pretrial process was launched in February after the construction of a courtroom at Roumieh prison. But caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel complained this week that inmates were brought to the courtroom in small groups, even though the facility could accommodateseveral hundred.
During the protests that were organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir, Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim, speaking on behalf of the inmate’s families, accused authorities in Lebanon of being biased against the Islamists.
“The government in Lebanon is unfair and treats people selectively on the basis of sects. Its judiciary is always biased against the Islamists,” Ibrahim told the protesters.
“Whoever is an Islamist, his fate remains unknown in prisons that are not even fit to house an animal.”
He complained that the government promised to release over 60 prisoners a month and half ago.
