The concerned state officials have not yet given the green light to activate these devices.
BEIRUT – Advanced jamming devices have been installed in the vicinity of the infamous Roumieh Prison in an attempt to halt the operations allegedly being masterminded by Islamist detainees with the coordination of terrorists on the outside.
However, the concerned state officials have not yet given the green light to activate these devices.
“The activation date of these devices will be [set for] later on, not now,” caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told As-Safir newspaper in comments published on Friday.
“This is not due to [lack of] courage or fear, but rather other issues that cannot be disclosed,” the caretaker minister added.
The same daily said that these devices cost the Telecommunications Ministry $650,000.
As-Safir also said it received a documented military telegram confirming that a large number of Islamist detainees have pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front and are following fatwas and instructions from the extremist organization.
This allegiance renders it a “religious duty” for the Al-Nusra Front to free the prisoners as soon as possible through an escape operation that is being prepared, the newspaper added.
Meanwhile, the said daily claimed that Charbel and caretaker Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi concluded a settlement with representatives of the Islamist detainees during the officials’ Wednesday visit to the prison.
The settlement purportedly allows Islamist prisoners who partook in the fighting between the army and supporters of radical cleric Ahmad al-Assir in June, along with other extremist detainees, to join the Islamists in the jail’s Bloc B.
On Wednesday, Charbel said that weekly search operations will take place as of Thursday in the Roumieh Prison’s Bloc B.
Islamist prisoners are held in the said building, which has been the scene of numerous riots and other security disturbances.
In November, As-Safir newspaper reported that a number of the inmates in the bloc were affiliated with the Al-Nusra Front and plotting terror attacks.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/lebanonnews/526613-jamming-devices-installed-around-roumieh-prison
