"The protest movements that renewed at Roumieh prison last Monday and were accompanied by the burning of tires in (several) regions, showed that there was a single unit moving both the prisoners and their families," Rifi told An Nahar daily in remarks published Wednesday.
He said the ISF had already warned that the issue was bigger than a demand for amnesty and better prison conditions.
"We gave a two-day chance for negotiations but the situation on the ground was deteriorating rapidly, until we reached the stage that we call the red line and which warns that inmates had controlled the prison," Rifi said.
The ISF chief said the situation became worse because inmates charged of committing murder and drug trafficking were in the same prison with people imprisoned for collaborating with Israel and with those charged with carrying out bombings or attacks on the army such as Fatah al-Islam militants.
Rifi described ties between the three different categories of prisoners as "explosive" saying "had each side reached the other during the mutiny, there would have been massacres."
He said security forces decided to storm the prison on the night of April 6 after the inmates charged of committing murder and drug trafficking removed the iron doors separating them from the other prisoners. At that point, they had crossed the "red line," and any delay in storming the prison would have led to a "massacre."
Two inmates died in the raid - One of them of a heart attack and the second after grabbing a stun grenade that the ISF had thrown when the assault was launched.
Asked by An Nahar about his assessment of the raid, Rifi said: "We consider it a standard operation when compared with similar operations in neighboring countries."
"We regret the fall of victims but we didn't have any other choice," he added.
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