Like to join me visiting the Prison of Roumieh in Lebanon?
Posted on: January 27, 2013
Like to join me visiting the Prison of Roumieh in Lebanon?
Last week, a 38 year-old prisoner was murdered in the section reserved for the extremist Wahhabi islamist Jund el Sham who were captured in the camp of Nhr al barted after 6 long months of fighting with the lebanese army, and were not convicted so far.
Every now and then a few, of these jihadist prisoners are allowed to flee from prison, and lukewarm investigations are conducted… But no prison reforms are very credible or lasting for any duration…
Women accused of killing their husbands, runaway domestic workers, children denied education, and countless others jailed without trial…
In overcrowded prisons, numerous are being held arbitrarily without trial for excessive periods, while migrant workers, asylum seekers, and refugees remain incarcerated until well after their set release dates.
State of Lebanon neglect in penitentiaries sees prisoners finding small ways to turn punishment cells into more humane reformatories. Playing cards, holiday decorations, and caged friendships offer the justly and unjustly caged reminders of the outside world.
Convicted and unconvicted inmates are left to share cells with murderers and marijuana-smokers.
The Lebanese Daily Alakhbar English published “Lebanon Prison Blues”
According to the 2008 Lebanese Center for Human Rights report, 66% of those imprisoned in Lebanon had not yet been convicted and 13 percent were being held beyond their sentence.
When trials are staged in corrupt courts, with paid judges and inadequate checks on trial procedures, incrimination is subjective.
Criminals become criminals because crimes are attached to their names, sometimes rightly so, but consistency and credibility are lacking with unevenly imposed ‘justice.’
To make matters worse, the state does little to secure a life, free from excessive hardship after prisoners are released, inviting repeat offenses from those they purportedly aimed to reform.
What messages the following pictures send?
Note 1: Photoblog by Haytham al-Moussawi (Roumieh Prison), Marwan Bu Haidar (Juvenile Detention Center), and Marwan Tahtah (Baabda Women’s Prison)
Note 2: https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/whats-going-on-in-lebanon-in-the-prison-of-roumieh-and-this-stupid-mikati-unable-to-form-a-government/
Note 3: In Aleppo Syria, where the State has vacated its responsibilities, lawyers and former judges are instituting a judicial system, and resuming the procedures in order to get out of the chaos
Adonis Diaries 
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