Daily Star - Islamists’ trial suspension scandalous: Karami, April 10, 2012

BEIRUT: Sports and Youth Minister Faisal Karami described Monday the suspension of the trials of Islamist inmates as a scandal.

Karami criticized during a rally in Tripoli the “double standards” exhibited by authorities when dealing with Islamist inmates.

“While some prisoners benefited from the sentence reduction law, there are numerous people who did not benefit from such a law not because they do not meet the law requirements but because they had not been sentenced even after seven and eight years of their arrest,” said Karami.

The minister added that he encouraged any lawful step to be taken by the families of the inmates to shed light on their cause.

The families of some 40 Islamists being held in Roumieh prison objected last Thursday to the release of Free Patriotic Movement official Fayez Karam, convicted of contacting Israel, as their relatives remain imprisoned without trial.

Dozens of Islamists were detained following the three-month battle between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in 2007. 

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Apr-10/169741-islamists-trial-suspension-scandalous-karami.ashx#axzz1rdyliLeO