Daily Star - Prisons initiative pays fines to free inmates, April 13, 2012

BAALBEK, Lebanon: Over two dozen inmates who had been held in prison after their sentences expired because they could not afford to pay their fines were released Thursday after a donation by a group of philanthropists.

The donors also vowed to see to it that all those held in the General Security detention center are also released.

Between LL300,000 and LL28 million were given to each of the 16 inmates who were released from three prisons in the Bekaa.

“Seven inmates from Jeb Jennin prison, seven from Zahle prison and two others from Baalbek prison were released Thursday,” one of the donors, Talal Makdessi, told The Daily Star.

Following his visit to the inmates in the Baalbek facility, Makdessi said the initiative was part of a project started last month to free inmates in all Lebanese prisons who have already completed their sentences but cannot afford to pay their fines.

Last month, nearly two dozen inmates were released from Roumieh prison, the country’s largest. The project is being undertaken in collaboration with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, and the donation was made by the Makdesssi Foundation, Al-Mawarid Bank and businessmen Michel Daher and Amal Abu Zeid.

Makdessi said that donors are purchasing plane tickets for all the foreign nationals who are detained in General Security’s detention center in Beirut to allow them to travel home after their release. Often foreigners who are convicted of crimes are sent to the detention center after finishing their sentences, or are sent there initially for immigration violations.

“All detainees will be released from General Security in three weeks’ time,” Makdessi promised.

He also called on embassies to provide assistance to their nationals who are facing financial and legal problems.

But the donors’ initiative will be at least one person short of its goal, after one of the inmates in a prison in the Bekaa refused to leave, arguing that he preferred to remain behind bars rather than return to his country.

Makdessi said that the project would continue to tackle problems facing inmates in other prisons.

“The third stage of our campaign will be in the prisons of north Lebanon, followed by south Lebanon and Mount Lebanon,” he noted.

Also Thursday, a delegation of families of Islamist prisoners urged the interior minister, who has sponsored the prisoner release initiative, to help accelerate the release of their relatives, who were jailed shortly after the end of the 2007 fighting in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, but have yet to be tried.

Last week, the families of some 40 Islamists being held in Roumieh criticized the release of Free Patriotic Movement official Fayez Karam, who was convicted of collaborating with Israel and served 18 months.

Several politicians have also expressed support for the families’ grievances, saying that a new law to reduce the prison year from 12 to nine months “unfairly” helped Karam, while Islamist detainees remain behind bars, awaiting the beginning of their trials.

By Rakan al-Fakih

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