A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For March 18-19/2020 Addressing All That is happing In the Iranian Occupied & Oppressed Lebanon

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A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For March 18-19/2020 Addressing All That is happing In the Iranian Occupied & Oppressed Lebanon
Compiled By: Elias Bejjani
March 19/2020

LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 18-19/2020
St. Joseph’s Day/Elias Bejjani/March 19/20
Lebanon: Hints at Deal with US Over Fakhoury’s Case
RHUH Says Woman who Died in ER Did Not Have Pneumonia
ISF Member Tests Positive for Coronavirus
Lebanon: 133 Coronavirus Cases Confirmed, 4 Deaths
Fahmi: No Cases of Coronavirus Among Security Forces or Inmates
Wazni: Cabinet Likely to Approve Capital Control Law
Sfeir Says Politicians ‘Better Not Interfere in Banking System’
Cellphone Shops to be Closed, Validity of Prepaid Lines Extended
Military Cassation Court receives demand to appeal verdict in Amer Fakhoury’s case
President receives Minister of Interior and Municipalities
Hariri Hospital issues statement clarifying death of patient at corona emergency
No coronavirus cases among security forces and inmates: Interior Minister
Tripoli Van Drivers Block Road for 2nd Day over Virus Ban
Lebanon: Citizens Criticize State of ‘General Mobilization’ Against Corona But Abide By It/Sanaa Al-Jack/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2020
Virus Sinks Lebanon Demos Hotspot Deeper into Doldrums
Kubis renews UN support for Lebanon stability
‘Impunity is a pattern’: The lawyers taking on torture in Lebanon’s prisons/Alicia Medina/The New Arab/March 18/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 18-19/2020
St. Joseph’s Dayعيد ما يوسف البتول
Elias Bejjani/March 19/20
The feast day of St. Joseph is celebrated annually on March 19/Our Bejjani family has proudly carried this name generation after generation for centuries and still do. May God and His angles safeguard our caring and loving son Youssef, and our grandson Joseph, who both carry this blessed name. It is worth mentioning that St. Joseph’s Day is a Maronite and Roman Catholic feast day that commemorates the life of St. Joseph, the step-father of Jesus and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. People with very strong religious convictions among which are the Lebanese Maronites celebrate St. Joseph’s Day on March 19 and believe that this day is St. Joseph’s birthday too. Back home, in Lebanon St. Joseph is considered the Family Saint and looked upon as a family and hardworking father role model because of the great role that Almighty God had assigned him to carry. His duty was to raise Jesus Christ and take care of Virgin Mary. God has chose him to look after His begotten son and Virgin Marry. He fulfilled his Godly assignment with love, passion and devotion. May Al Mighty God bless all those that carry this name.

Lebanon: Hints at Deal with US Over Fakhoury’s Case
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 18 March, 2020
A Lebanese military judge on Wednesday asked the Cassation Court to overturn the verdict on the release of Amer Fakhoury, a former collaborator with Israel, amid mounting condemnation and hints at a political deal with the US. In a surprising decision on Monday, the Military Court acquitted Fakhoury of arresting, seizing, and torturing Lebanese citizens in the Khiam prison that Israel established during its occupation of southern Lebanon between 1985 and 2000. Fakhoury, who arrived six months ago from the US, was ordered released on Monday because more than 10 years had passed since he allegedly committed the crimes, the National News Agency reported. Judge Ghassan Khoury asked the Military Court of Appeals to strike down the ruling in favor of Fakhoury and issue an arrest warrant against him. He asked that Fakhoury be put on trial again on charges of kidnapping, torturing and detaining Lebanese citizens as well as “killing and attempting to kill others,” according to NNA. The decision to acquit Fakhoury sparked surprise and condemnation among Lebanese politicians. The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, decried the ruling on Twitter, saying: “It is a poisonous potion for the presidency. ”Hezbollah issued a statement, saying: “Unfortunately, American pressure has paid off today.” “This is a sad day for Lebanon and for justice, and it is a decision that calls for regret, anger, and condemnation,” it added. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, opposition political sources asked whether the decision was linked to information about US sanctions that would affect Hezbollah’s allies outside the Shiite duo. The sources also asked whether there was a cost for acquitting Fakhoury, linked to “the normalization of US-Lebanese relations and the maintenance of a thin line between Washington and the Lebanese government that facilitates an American green light for the International Monetary Fund to provide cash assistance to Lebanon.” Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the decision was made due to “tremendous pressure exerted by the United States on the Lebanese authorities to release Fakhouri, who holds an American passport, and the intensive contacts made by the US Ambassador in Beirut with Lebanese officials.”

RHUH Says Woman who Died in ER Did Not Have Pneumonia
Naharnet/March 18/2020
A woman who died Wednesday shortly after arriving at the coronavirus emergency section of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital was not suffering from pneumonia and the result of her coronavirus test will be released on Thursday, RHUH said. “She was suffering from breathlessness and she died after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure and a heart failure,” the hospital said in a statement, noting that the woman had chronic heart problems according to medical diagnosis. “A CT scan showed that she was not suffering from pneumonia,” the hospital added. The woman’s husband had told al-Jadeed that she had arrived at the hospital with a high fever and breathlessness. Al-Jadeed TV said the woman had chronic hypertension. Four confirmed coronavirus patients have so far died in Lebanon and the total number of infections has reached 133.

ISF Member Tests Positive for Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 18/2020
An Internal Security Forces member who hails from the eastern border town of al-Qaa has tested positive for coronavirus, the town’s municipality said on Wednesday. “ISF First Adjutant A.D., who hails from al-Qaa, has tested positive for coronavirus,” the municipality said in a statement. “He has been admitted into the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut and he is in good health and his morale is high,” it added. “He has not visited the town since more than three months and he rarely comes in contact with al-Qaa residents due to the location of his work and residence,” the municipality said, urging all people to show caution and not be negligent about their health. Lebanon has so far confirmed 133 coronavirus cases among them four deaths. The country has gone on a two-week lockdown and taken drastic measures to limit the spread of the virus.

Lebanon: 133 Coronavirus Cases Confirmed, 4 Deaths
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 18 March, 2020
The Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that the total number of people who tested positive for the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) has reached 133. The ministry renewed its call on “all citizens to adhere to the strict measures issued by the official authorities, and to stay home, except when absolutely necessary.” Four persons have succumbed to the virus since the first reported case on Feb. 21. The latest death was recorded on Wednesday, of a man in his 90s, who suffered from “several chronic diseases.”In parallel, a meeting was held on Tuesday between the Health Minister, Hamad Hassan and the employees of the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital, in the presence of the Director-General and Chairman of the Hospital Board, Dr. Firas Abyad and the Director of the office of the Minister of Public Health, Dr. Hassan Ammar. During the meeting, the minister announced that Prime Minister Hassan Diab has agreed to earmark additional amounts to allow the hospital to implement the salary scale law, a demand which has been raised by the hospital’s employees.He also said that two patients have fully recovered from the virus.

Fahmi: No Cases of Coronavirus Among Security Forces or Inmates
Naharnet/March 18/2020
The press office of Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi assured in a statement on Wednesday that no coronavirus cases were registered among members of the security forces or in Lebanon’s jails. The statement said the ministry has taken a series of measures and precautions at Lebanon’s prisons, mainly Roumieh prison being the biggest and most crowded, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The statement said the measures were taken out of keenness on the safety and health of prisoners, their relatives and security members alike. One prisoner had suffered from fever and had tested negative for coronavirus, it added.

Wazni: Cabinet Likely to Approve Capital Control Law
Naharnet/March 18/2020
Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said the cabinet will likely approve the capital control law during its next meeting, with emphasis on protecting the rights of depositors, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.
“There is a high possibility that the cabinet is to approve on Thursday the capital control law,” he said, noting that efforts “seek to reach a balanced version of the law that protects the rights of depositors mainly small depositors.” Banks in Lebanon are tightening banking controls, limiting the amounts of dollars depositors are allowed to withdraw every month, despite growing public anger. Faced with a dollar liquidity crunch, banks have imposed informal controls on dollar withdrawals and transfers abroad since September amid widespread anti-government protests and Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades. On an economic plan to solve Lebanon’s ailing economy, Wazni noted that efforts are ongoing to complete a “rescue-reform plan within a one month period,” he told the daily. Wazni criticized the banks’ decision to suspend work until March 29 over the coronavirus threat, saying they should have adapted their work to meet the needs of customers. “Banks should have adapted their work according to the general mobilization state announced by the government to continue to meet the needs of customers according to a specific rotation program among employees, taking into consideration protection measures against coronavirus,” he added.

Sfeir Says Politicians ‘Better Not Interfere in Banking System’
Naharnet/March 18/2020
Salim Sfeir, the head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, has said that a default on the country’s Eurobond debt “could have been avoided.”In an interview with the Financial Times published Wednesday, Sfeir criticized the government, saying the default was “handled in a non-professional manner.”Politicians “better not interfere in the banking system,” said Sfeir, who is chairman and chief executive of Bank of Beirut. “Let it be the responsibility of the central bank and not the politicians,” he said. Sfeir also blamed the public sector for “bad management” leading to the cash crisis. Lebanon is currently facing its worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. The value of the Lebanese pound has plummeted on the black market, prices have risen, and many businesses have been forced to slash salaries, dismiss staff or close. Lebanon is one of the most indebted countries in the world, with a public debt equivalent to 150 percent of its GDP. The country defaulted on a $1.2 billion Eurobond debt that was due to be paid on March 9. Economists had warned that payment on time would eat away at plummeting foreign currency reserves, while bankers cautioned that a default would damage Lebanon’s reputation with lenders.
Bank of America Merill Lynch in a November report estimated that around 50 percent of Eurobonds were held by local banks, while the central bank had around 11 percent. Foreign investors owned the remainder, or around 39 percent, it said. But these figures may have changed, with local media reporting that local banks have recently sold a chunk of their Eurobonds to foreign lenders.

Cellphone Shops to be Closed, Validity of Prepaid Lines Extended
Naharnet/March 18/2020
Cellphone shops will be closed in Lebanon and the validity of prepaid lines will be extended by a month due to the coronavirus crisis, the telecom minister said on Wednesday. “An additional one-month grace period will be given to the subscribers of the Alfa and touch firms for paying their bills,” Talal Hawat told al-Jadeed TV. The Telecommunications Ministry meanwhile launched a donations campaign to aid the country’s anti-coronavirus efforts. For every SMS sent to 1122, LBP 1,500 will be donated to the country’s government-appointed anti-coronavirus committee, the Ministry said. The government had on Sunday declared a two-week state of “general mobilization,” closing the country’s air, land and sea ports of entry and ordering the closure of all non-essential public and private institutions. Citizens and residents were meanwhile asked to stay home unless it is extremely necessary to go out. Lebanon has so far confirmed 133 coronavirus cases among them four deaths.

Military Cassation Court receives demand to appeal verdict in Amer Fakhoury’s case
NNA/March 18/2020
Military Cassation Court ‘s Judge Tani Lattouf on Wednesday received the plea submitted by state commissioner before the military tribunal, Judge Ghassan Khoury, hereby demanding to appeal a verdict allowing the release of collaborator Amer Khoury.

President receives Minister of Interior and Municipalities
NNA/March 18/2020
President Michel Aoun met Interior and Municipalities Minister, Brigadier General Mohammad Fahmy, today at Baabda Palace, and discussed with him security and prison conditions, especially after recent developments in Roumieh Prison. The meeting also tackled the expedited draft law (approved by the Cabinet in yesterday’s session), which aims to exempt convicts who have served their sentence and are still imprisoned for not paying their fines.
The necessity of providing decent healthcare and sterilization for all prisoners was also discussed, especially in these delicate conditions which Lebanon, and the world, are going through due to Corona outbreak.
After the meeting, Minister Fahmy said that he informed the President about the reasons which led to some of Roumieh prison events, which had been worked out. —Presidency Press Office

Hariri Hospital issues statement clarifying death of patient at corona emergency

NNA/March 18/2020
The Administration of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Wednesday clarified in a statement the details of the death of a citizen at the Corona emergency unit, which reads: “This afternoon, a female patient arrived to the Corona emergency, showing symptoms of shortness of breath with a deteriorating health condition, so she was given the necessary medical attention, but the patient passed away after suffering from severe low blood circulation and heart failure.”The statement added: “The diagnosis has showed that the patient was suffering from chronic heart muscle failure, and a CT scan showed that she had no pulmonary infections. The patient was tested for corona. However, the result will not be released until tomorrow, to verify whether she was infected with the Corona virus or not. ”

No coronavirus cases among security forces and inmates: Interior Minister
NNA/March 18/2020
The press office of Interior Minister, Mohammad Fahmi, indicated in a statement on Wednesday that there are no coronavirus cases among security forces and inmates in Lebanon’s jails. According to the statement, the prisoner suffering from fever had tested negative for coronavirus.

Tripoli Van Drivers Block Road for 2nd Day over Virus Ban
Naharnet/March 18/2020
Drivers of passenger vans on Wednesday blocked the Tripoli-Beirut highway for a second day after the government barred them from operating as part of a two-week coronavirus lockdown. The National News Agency said the drivers blocked the road in the Palma area twice on Wednesday, after having blocked it on Tuesday. At Tripoli’s al-Tal Square, drivers staged a sit-in during which a spokesman warned that they might resort to permanent roadblocks to express their grievances. “The drivers are facing the coronavirus threat and the rulers’ injustice,” he lamented, decrying that unlicensed cars, vans and buses were operating despite the ban. “The Interior Minister must take action,” he urged, calling for “immediate compensations for the drivers.” “We are addressing the Social Affairs Ministry, the High Relief Council and the entire government,” the spokesman went on to say.

Lebanon: Citizens Criticize State of ‘General Mobilization’ Against Corona But Abide By It
Sanaa Al-Jack/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2020
A Banner telling citizens that they are banned for accessing the waterfront as part of the measure to curb the spread of the corona virus.
The Lebanese capital Beirut has turned into a large voluntary prison for its residents in an attempt to limit the spread of the Coronavirus after the government announced a state of “General Mobilization”.
Patrols in Ashrafieh, Barbour, and Hamra confirm that people are abiding with the instructions to stay at home amid a total lock-down of most stores except for those selling groceries, which are not seeing many customers as the majority have resorted to having their groceries delivered to their homes.
The different precautionary measures adopted are being followed to different degrees in different regions. At the entrance to the Sabra and Shatila camps, traffic usual and people are still gathering on the street.
In Barbour, all stores are closed except for vegetable markets where people are taking no precautions. Their only concern is their day-to-day materials. One of them says: “If we work we eat if we don’t we starve. There is no escaping from what God has written for us, with or without Corona”.
According to surveys, only 15% of people are not abiding by the government’s instructions, whether in Beirut or otherwise. Hisham, from the town of Ghazieh in South Lebanon, tells Asharq Al-Awsat that “90% of stores are closed. The municipality is raising awareness using ‘friendly checkpoints’ where participants maintain social distance wearing masks and carrying sanitizers and giving out pamphlets with precautionary measures to those who are without any protection”.
Qantara, an activist in the popular movement tells us, “General Mobilization is not effective in ministries and public institutions. They need special procedures. The government is unable to meet the daily demands of people despite imposing a quarantine on them. It does not have what is needed to support their persistence. They ask us to help them but they don’t help us back”.Ibrahim, who used to own a restaurant in Hamra Street, agrees, saying, “A state that respects itself provides compensation after announcing general mobilization”.
Hiam al-Shami, a resident of Hamra Street, sees the General Mobilization as less of a precaution than those adopted in other countries. She says that she “wanted to travel to Athens to meet my husband, but was told not to leave the house for 15 days if I were to travel. So I preferred to stay in Beirut where I could leave the house while taking the necessary precautions”. She adds: “Going around Hamra is sad, everything is closed. Even the American University of Beirut, which did not close its doors during every war in the region, is closed”.
She admits that she has “foregone every luxury she was used to and is no longer shy to refuse to meet relatives and friends”.

Virus Sinks Lebanon Demos Hotspot Deeper into Doldrums
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 18/2020
In Lebanon’s anti-government protest hotspot Tripoli, Amim Mahbani has struggled to rescue his clothes shop from a freefalling economy. Now the novel coronavirus has left its very survival in peril.
Lebanese authorities have ordered shops to close for two weeks to fight COVID-19, compounding a crisis that traders in the country’s poverty-stricken second city Tripoli say was already in full swing. “We’ve shuttered our shops, but no one was entering them anyway because of this grinding economic crunch,” Mahbani said, according to AFP. “The government announcing a health emergency has just come to finish us off,” the 52-year-old father of three said, following Sunday’s orders from Beirut. Dubbed the “bride” of Lebanon’s months-long protest movement for its vibrant anti-government rallies, Tripoli has been plunged into economic despair. “Traders are simply no longer able to sustain financial losses,” said Mahbani, who has been forced to lay off eight of his nine employees. As Lebanon faces its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, prices have skyrocketed, the Lebanese pound has plunged in value and unemployment is rampant. This is the case across the country, but Tripoli has been disproportionately hit because more than half of its population had already been living at or below the poverty line for years.
In the city’s Azmi street and surrounding areas, shops have shuttered and others been starved for business.
‘Never been as hard’
Outside a lingerie store, Sherine pleaded with passersby to step inside before the ordered shutdown. Her eyes darting left and right, she scoured the street for desperately needed customers. “If I can sell, then I’ll be paid a salary,” the 28-year-old shop assistant told AFP. “If I don’t, then the store owner won’t pay me.”Her only colleague had already been fired and she feared her turn would be next. Tripoli, a port city on the eastern Mediterranean, had already suffered for several years from an economic downturn. From 2007 to 2014, it was the scene of frequent sectarian clashes between rival neighboring districts. The spillover of Syria’s war in 2011 fueled violence and unleashed a wave of attacks, including a 2013 twin bombing on two Tripoli mosques that killed 45 people. Despite all this, Hussam Zaher — who owns a women’s boutique on the same street — said business today was exceptionally bad. “It’s never been as hard as these days,” said the 60-year-old, who has owned the shop for around a quarter of a century. “My problem as a business owner is the liquidity crunch,” he told AFP. “People who have money are spending it just on food, while things like clothes have become secondary.”
‘Lives flipped upside-down’
As a result, more than 120 shops in and around Azmi street have shuttered for good, said Talal Baroudi, who heads an association of merchants in the area. “The shops that have survived in the face of the economic crisis… are considered semi-closed because of the lack of business,” he told AFP. “Most merchants have stopped stocking up on goods altogether.” Faced with a liquidity crunch, Lebanese banks have since September imposed stringent controls on dollar withdrawals and halted transfers abroad. Account holders have been forced to deal in the nose-diving Lebanese pound, which has lost more than a third of its value on the black market. With limited access to her money, Wafaa Merehbi said her outings have been reduced to window shopping. “Our purchasing power is zero,” said the 64-year-old. “We are using the $100 dollars the banks allow us to withdraw (every week) to eat.”
Ismail Mukaddam said business at a nearby menswear store he has owned for the past 45 years was doomed. “Our lives have been flipped upside down,” the 70-year-old said. “Things have never been this bad, not even at the peak of the civil war.”

Kubis renews UN support for Lebanon stability
NNA/March 18/2020
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, on Wednesday renewed the international organization’s support for the country’s economic and social stability, as well as for all actions capable of ending local crises and meeting the aspirations of the Lebanese people. His stance came following a meeting with MP Bahiya Hariri at her Majdelyoun residence. Talks had reportedly featured high on the current general situation and latest developments in Lebanon and worldwide, especially amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The pair also discussed the current economic and financial condition in Lebanon.

‘Impunity is a pattern’: The lawyers taking on torture in Lebanon’s prisons
Alicia Medina/The New Arab/March 18/2020
Torture in Lebanese detention centres remains a widespread practice carried out with impunity. One group of lawyers, however, is fighting against the system for accountability.Tags:Torture, Lebanon, prisons, impunity
A myriad of smartphones have captured how security forces have beaten protesters on the Lebanese streets since 17 October. But what followed after they were detained is less known. The Committee of Lawyers to Defend Protesters filed complaints last December on behalf of 17 protesters for the crime of torture against members of the security and military apparatus. “Many of the assaults were aimed to extract information and punish the protesters,” said lawyer Ghida Frangieh, a member of the committee and The Legal Agenda, a Beirut-based NGO.
Contravening the law, the Military Prosecutor referred these complaints to the security and military agencies that are being accused of torture and then closed the investigations.
“Until today, we’ve not seen any transparent investigation or any member of the security police being held accountable,” Frangieh told The New Arab.
In Lebanon this impunity is a pattern.
On paper, Lebanon has beefed up its legal arsenal against torture. In 2008 it became the first Middle Eastern nation to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (CAT) and in 2017 passed the Anti-Torture Law (Law 65/2017).
But the moves of lawmakers seem de-synchronised with the reality of detention cells and courtrooms.
Last October, in a conference room of a luxurious hotel in Beirut, a nervous man with a pile of papers listened to experts discussing the results of the Anti-Torture Law.
The representative of the Ministry of Justice, judge Angela Dagher, took to the stage to remark on Lebanon’s fight against torture. Then the nervous man took the microphone.
“My name is Toufic al-Dika, father of Hassan al-Dika”. The room fell deadly silent.
Toufic saw his son enter prison accused of drug-related charges in November 2018. Seven months later he was handed his dead body.
e of documents in front of him attests to the fight of Toufic, who acted as his son’s lawyer, to seek accountability: copies of complaints, medical reports and 16 letters sent by Hassan describing the beatings and electric shocks he was subjected to.Stress positions, beatings, electric shocks and food deprivation are common practice in detention centres
Toufic read out loud the letter sent by Hassan the day he died: “I have fell down many times, I am not even able to stand”.
“The judiciary and the intelligence branch are responsible of the death of my son,” said Toufic. Dagher acknowledged “some problems in the judiciary” but added that “we can not put all the evils of our country in the judicial alone”.
Sitting next to Toufic, Ghassan Mukheiber, an ex-lawmaker who contributed to the draft of Law 65, addressed Dagher: “Is there a single veridic by Lebanese judges to criminalise torture?”
After a moment of silence, Mukheiber answered. None.
The architecture of impunity
Stress positions, beatings, electric shocks or food deprivation are common practice in detention centres according to a report by the Lebanese Centre for Human Rights (CLDH).
Torture is “considered as a valid method of investigation and punishment” and is “accepted by the Lebanese Justice system”, CLDH concluded. Detainees accused of terrorism, drugs or theft; Syrians and Palestinian refugees, migrant workers, lower-income detainees, sex workers or LGBT individuals are the most vulnerable groups to be tortured by the Army Intelligence, General Security and the Internal Security Forces, say multiple NGOs.
The portfolio of two lawyers offers a glimpse of the spread of torture. Mohamad Sablouh, representative of the Lawyers Syndicate of Tripoli, has documented 35 cases of torture but no accountability has been achieved. “The problem is that the judges are not cooperating in order to implement the UNCAT,” he denounced.
Lawyer Diala Shehade has worked in 202 cases where detainees told the judge they had been tortured. She represented the families of three Syrians that died under army custody in 2017.
The forensic examination documented evidence of violence in their bodies but “the conclusion was worded in a very tricky way because the doctors were under threat,” Shehade explained. No one has been held accountable yet. “We need at least one case to become a precedent, to be a lesson,” urged Shehade.
One of Shehade’s clients claims he was tortured first by Hezbollah and then by the Lebanese security forces. He is a Syrian national that in 2014 fled to Lebanon after the militia he led in Syria was defeated by Assad’s forces.
Syrian and Palestinian refugees, migrant workers, lower-income detainees, sex workers or LGBT individuals are the most vulnerable groups to be tortured
This man, who will be identified as Ahmed, says he was kidnapped by Hezbollah and spent over a year in an underground unknown location suffering daily beatings the first four months. During this time his wife and children did not know his whereabouts.
After Hezbollah released him, Ahmed was detained by the Army Intelligence and accused by General Security of dealing with a member of the Al-Nusra Front (a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda). Ahmed denied the charges saying his militia whose name he declined to give – fought Al-Nusra in Syria. He spent 21 days in an isolation cell while being interrogated. He says he was severely beaten and electrocuted every day To push him to sign a confession, Ahmed’s wife was detained for nine days. His wife says she was beaten once because the interrogator “was pissed off” with her.
Ahmed signed a confession, without being allowed to read it and served a nine-month sentence on terrorism charges. During that investigative phase he could not communicate with his lawyer. Shehade pointed out that military tribunals forbid lawyers to meet with their clients during that period, which is against the Lebanese procedural code.
Ahmed says the judge ignored him when he tried to show him evidence of torture on his hands and legs. Legislation states that if there is an allegation of torture an investigation should follow in 48 hours, including a medical examination. But that’s rarely the case.
Judges normally assign prison doctors to check on the detainees. “A doctor who gets his salary from the same security authorities that has tortured my client,” said lawyer Sablouh. One of his clients was subjected to electric shocks on his genitals and the judge assigned a juris doctor, but six months after the incident.
The key to stopping torture would be for the judges to accept a confession only if it was signed with a lawyer present in the interrogation, said lawyers Shehade and Sablouh. “If the judicial authorities support us in combating torture, the security authorities will not dare to continue the torture practices,” said Sablouh.
In-depth: As Lebanon grapples with economic collapse and a coronavirus outbreak, refugees appeal for international help
Ex-lawmaker Mukheiber argued that the main problem are the violations of the penal procedural code: period of arrest, access to a lawyer, interpreter, doctor or the right to make a phone call.
Law 65 also has shortcomings. Amnesty International’s researcher Sahar Mandour criticised the statute of limitations of 3 to 10 years after the release of the victim. In her view crimes of torture should not apply. The preamble of Law 65 establishes that regular judicial courts, not military ones, will hear torture cases, but due to a loophole in the law, torture cases keep being referred to military courts.
Sablouh urged the international community to “put pressure on Lebanon” to abide by the Convention Against Torture, which in Lebanon exists “only in writing”.
*The New ArabAlicia Medina is a freelance journalist based in Lebanon.