Roumieh Inmates Go on Hunger Strike in Protest against Prison Year

Scores of inmates at Roumieh prison have gone on hunger strike to demand general amnesty and protest the parliament’s rejection of a bill on lowering the prison year to nine months.

The state-run National News Agency said 187 prisoners went on hunger strike at the prison’s Ward B.

NNA said additional members from the Special Panthers Unit and a Rapid Intervention squad were deployed in the prison to prevent any possible riot.

The cabinet has approved a bill allowing prisoners to request a reduction in their sentence, but the parliament did not pass a draft law which would make one year of prison sentence equivalent to nine months.

Their families demonstrated outside the Grand Serail last month to pressure the authorities to endorse the draft law.

Lebanon's overcrowded prisons witnessed sporadic prison breaks in recent years and escalating riots over the past months as inmates living in poor conditions demand better treatment.

Also Wednesday, an inmate tossed a tear gas grenade in Roumieh’s Bloc D. NNA said the prisoner had kept the grenade from the last riot at the prison.