24 August 2011

BEIRUT: The hard labor sentence is often handed down in Lebanon, especially for those found guilty of collaborating with Israel, but in reality the term is not implemented and there are calls for it to be removed from the Penal Code.

Since the nationwide crackdown on spies, which began in 2009, the sentence has been meted out frequently, and often accompanies long sentences.

The latest use of the sentence was in June, when a military tribunal sentenced Army Col. Mansour Diab to 20 years hard labor after finding him guilty of supplying Israel with documents and classified information about the army as well as military and civilian sites during the 2006 war.

And in May, Hussein Abdallah and Syrian national Fadi Ajeimeh were each sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for the killing of a Progressive Socialist Party member in 2009.

Child abduction and several other crimes can also lead to a hard labor punishment of three to 15 years.

But what does hard labor in Lebanon actually entail?

While prisons around the world often engage prisoners in nonpunitive labor, whereby inmates create goods and are normally paid for their work, hard labor is becoming rarer. The last U.S. state to abolish hard labor was Alabama in 1927 and England withdrew the sentence in 1948.

Conjuring images of Soviet gulags, and hours of arduous, possibly pointless, work, it appears the “hard labor” sentence, in Lebanon at least, is little more than just a label.

Robert Ghanem, MP for the West Bekaa and chair of Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee, told The Daily Star that while “in principle, hard labor means a long stay in prison accompanied by physical work … it isn’t actually practiced.”

But, Ghanem said, a “prisoner sentenced with hard labor has additional restrictions,” meaning that said inmate will have fewer freedoms.

Parliament is currently in the process of improving prison conditions, and renovating the Penal Code after a series of riots earlier this year at Roumieh’s prison, the country’s largest, accompanied by protests by inmates’ relatives, have led to increased scrutiny of the country’s prison system.

Lebanon’s 20 prisons are extremely overcrowded: a 2010 study revealed that 5,324 inmates are being held in spaces originally designed to hold not more than 3,653.

The Administration and Justice Committee last week approved a law enabling prisoners greater opportunities to reduce their sentences, once inside, but as yet there have been no discussions of the hard labor issue, Ghanem said.

But Wadih Al-Asmar, secretary-general of CLDH, the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, believes that removing the sentence, which is only extant in name, would be an easy and important step for the government to take.

The law, Asmar says, gives Lebanon a bad image, and should be repealed.

“The sentence itself contravenes international conventions for human rights and international conventions against torture, which Lebanon has signed,” Asmar said.

But even though hard labor only exists on paper, it complicates Lebanon’s legal standing internationally, he added.

When in 2005 Syrian national Mohammad Zuheir Siddiq was detained in France for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, authorities refused to extradite to him to Lebanon, citing both the country’s death penalty and hard labor clause, as the latter is considered a form of torture.

“The fact we still have a ‘hard labor’ sentence contributes in creating a bad image of Lebanon,” Asmar added.

“There are a lot of aspects of the prison system which need to be changed but this law is completely useless.”

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said last month that the government is committed to prison reform, saying, “Let’s always remember that the prisoner … is a human being who has rights that we should ensure.”

Asmar believes these rights would be best ensured by allowing prisoners greater access to education while in prison, with the option to engage in productive labor. There are currently only limited opportunities for prisoners to work while in prison.

“For educational purposes, you cannot keep someone inside for three years, with no opportunity to work, and then send him out into the world. He will not be prepared for re-entering the job market,” Asmar said.

But, he stressed, there should be tight controls over how prison labor is managed. “If someone works they should be paid and it should not be used as a business for the prisoner or the prisons.”

Nadim Houry, Beirut director for Human Rights Watch, agreed with the need for prisoners to have freedom to choose what work they engage in.

“Prison labor must not be of an afflictive but rather of a vocational nature, and prisoners should be allowed to choose the type of work they wish to perform,” he said.

But there are some who view hard labor sentences as a preferable alternative to the death penalty, even if the law is solely symbolic.

Saber Itani, a criminal lawyer and member of the Beirut Bar Association’s 2010 Committee for Prison Affairs, told The Daily Star that he believes the sentence is only not carried out due to a lack of the appropriate systems.

“It’s not being implemented now as there are no opportunities for hard labor to be used, but one day this situation might change and prisoners could help in building roads, for example,” Itani said.

“It shouldn’t be repealed because every crime needs an appropriate punishment … It’s symbolic, if you are given a hard labor sentence it shows that you carried out a really serious crime.”

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.