Now Lebanon - Najjar proposes solutions for prisons in Lebanon - April 6, 2011

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar in an interview published on Wednesday highlighted the efforts of Interior Minister Ziad Baroud and proposed solutions for prisons in Lebanon.
“There are solutions that we must not avoid to reduce the overcrowding in prisons, such as transferring the foreign prisoners,” Najjar told An-Nahar newspaper.
“Also there are unfinished trials for hundreds of Fatah al-Islam and other fundamentalist [prisoners],” Najjar also said, adding that these trials could take place in a barrack or an equipped school.
On the other hand, another source told the daily that any amnesty law for prisoners is impossible at the moment due to procedural barriers.
The source added that matters like drugs, terrorism and the security of the state cannot be overshadowed in any amnesty law to be proposed.

Protests in Roumieh’s Prison have been ongoing for several days. Inmates at Roumieh – which is one of the biggest prisons in the Middle East and holds 4,500 inmates despite being built to hold only 1,500 – had been demanding amnesty and better conditions.

-NOW Lebanon