Report: Roumieh Islamist Inmates Demand Same Fate as Samaha

Islamist inmates in Roumieh prison went on a hunger strike on Friday in protest at the release of ex-Minister Michel Samaha, in what seems to be a call for their own release under pretext that they have served their sentence.

“The Islamic inmates from Tripoli began a hunger strike in protest at the release of Samaha,” said inmate Ziad Allouki in an audio recording, according to LBCI.

Allouki was the so-called leader of the Souk al-Qameh fighting frontier in Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood when gunbattles with the rival Jabal Mohsen were at peak between 2013 and 2014.

He was arrested in April 2014 when the Lebanese security forces launched massive crackdowns on street leaders in Bab al-Tabbaneh that led to the imprisonment of many influential leaders including Allouki, whom reports said has surrendered under specific conditions.

Officials had promised that Allouki would be released from jail two weeks after surrendering to authorities.

On Thursday, the Military General Prosecution agreed to release Samaha on a 150 million Lebanese pounds bail but prohibited him from traveling and making statements through various media.

Later during the day, families of the Islamist inmates held a sit-in denouncing the ex-minister's release.

Spokesman for the inmates said: “Samaha was caught red-handed and was insolently released. This is a new crime of an official institution of Bashar Assad's regime.

“We demand his re-arrest, release of Muslim youths, and sacking of officials affiliated with Iran and Syria.”

Samaha, who was an information minister from 1992 to 1995, had been under arrest since August 2012 over allegations that he and Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk transported explosives and planned attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon.

He pleaded guilty on all charges against him during his trial that kicked off in April 2015, admitting that he had transported explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon.

But the former information minister said he had been the victim of entrapment because he was not aware that his co-conspirator was a Lebanese security services informer.

He was sentenced in May later that year to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Several politicians at the time condemned the light verdict.

D.A.

G.K.