The Daily Star - Islamist prisoners’ relatives demand fair trials - May 04, 2011

BEIRUT: Around 100 relatives of Islamist prisoners gathered Tuesday in front of Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani’s headquarters, Dar al-Fatwa, demanding the detainees be released or receive a fair trial.

Some 300 prisoners were arrested on charges of fighting or aiding fighters during the 2007 armed clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam in the refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, in the north of the country.

“We came here because there is no justice … it’s been three or four years,” said Doumouh Dandal, 27, whose husband and two other relatives are in prison.

Qabbani described the living conditions and treatment prisoners were subjected to as “against human rights,” calling for the “immediate release” of prisoners who were being held without trial and for “justice for all.”

The grand mufti said he was working actively to solve the issue, but lamented “the indifference of all state officials.”