CLDH & SOLIDE - Lebanon: Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Hamid Omar, held for six years without trial

Arrested on September 14, 2004 after a fight in Burj Hamoud (Beirut), during which one person was killed, Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Hamid Omar, a 30 year-old Syrian worker has since been held without trial at the central prison in Roumieh.

The court hearings being constantly postponed, Mr. Omar has now been waiting for his trial for six years before the judicial process can even declare him guilty or innocent.

This unacceptable delay of Mr. Omar’s trial is a flagrant violation of the presumption of innocence to which every accused is entitled under article 14.2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Lebanon, which states that " Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. ".

These facts constitute an arbitrary detention under articles 9 and 14 of the above mentioned Covenant.

The CLDH (Lebanese Center for Human Rights) and SOLIDE (Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile) presented the case to the United Nations Working Group on arbitrary detention and call on the Lebanese judiciary to render a decision in Mr. Omar’s case without delay or to release him pending his trial.