A mutiny by prisoners demanding an amnesty and better conditions in Roumieh Prison ended peacefully on Sunday, officials said.
"The operation ended peacefully," Internal Security Forces chief Achraf Rifi said at a news conference of the day-long protest in which rioting inmates burned bedding and smashed windows and doors in the jail.
He said the demands of the prisoners in the overcrowded facility 12 kilometers northeast of Beirut had been passed on to political and judicial officials.
Prisons chaplain Father Marwan Ghanem told AFP "the mutiny by inmates at Roumieh is over."
A security official said talks were under way with the prisoners about their grievances.
Security reinforcements were sent to Roumieh on Saturday but did not intervene, the official said.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had been working to improve conditions at Roumieh for two years, and urged other ministries and the cabinet to follow suit by speeding up the trials process and providing finance.
Poor conditions in prisons and a slow judicial process have sparked several riots in Lebanese jails. Some prisoners can be incarcerated for years before their cases come to court.
Roumieh was originally built to house 1,500 inmates but is today crammed with more than 4,000 men -- 65 percent of the country's prison population
-AFP/NOW Lebanon
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