Rifi Says Islamist Inmates Trials to End in 2 Months, Blames 'Syrian Regime Legacy'

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi announced Sunday that the long-stalled trials of Islamist inmates held at the Roumieh prison would be finalized “within two months,” blaming the delay on “the Syrian regime's legacy” in Lebanon.

“The Syrian regime's 30-year legacy cannot be ended in three months and the issue needs more time and we have a long way ahead,” Rifi told families of Islamist prisoners during a meeting at the al-Salam Mosque in Tripoli.

The families had earlier carried out a sit-in outside the mosque to protest perceived ill-treatment of their relatives.

“I do not want to justify or defend mistakes that might have been committed against your sons but I will follow up on the issue from A to Z and I will seek to organize visits for you to meet your sons according to the applicable laws,” Rifi added.

He also revealed that trials have made a “major progress” and that the pending cases have not been finalized “due to some detainees' boycott of trial sessions.”

However, Rifi promised that the trials will be finalized “within two months.”

After the meeting, Rifi held phone talks with Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous to follow up on the situations in the Roumieh prison.

“Basbous stressed to me that all lacking clothes, medicines and other needs will be provided (to the Islamist prisoners) and that a judicial or disciplinary probe will be launched into any unjustified violence,” Rifi said in a statement.

Al-Mashnouq had told al-Hayat newspaper in remarks published earlier on Sunday that the Islamist inmates, who were last week moved out of Roumieh prison's block B, are set to return to the building after renovations there are complete.

“They will be returned once the prison is transformed into a humanitarian facility that offers its inmates all of their needs,” he stressed.

Moreover, Mashnouq denied to al-Hayat that some Islamist inmates were wounded during their transfer from block B to D. “Not a single drop of blood was shed during the operation,” he stated.

In addition, he told the daily that the families of the Islamists have been allowed to visit them starting January 17.

On Monday, the Internal Security Forces transferred detainees from block B where Islamists were being held after an investigation suggested that the January 10 suicide bombing in the northern city of Tripoli was directed from the facility.

The clearing of block B came after years of warnings that the overcrowded section was a meeting point for militants to plot attacks.

The inmates were transferred to block D, which has been renovated and has better security.

Most of the Islamist inmates were arrested in 2007 on charges of fighting with or aiding the Fatah al-Islam fighters against the Lebanese army in the Palestinian Refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, which lies near the northern coastal city of Tripoli.

There were around 190 Fatah al-Islam prisoners at the notorious prison's block B, which was known as a virtual no-go zone for security forces and where prisoners had access to laptops, phones and money.

Y.R.