19 August 2011
BEIRUT: Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee approved Thursday a law proposal allowing prisoners to seek a reduction in their sentences, as prisoners began a hunger strike at the Qibbeh prison in Tripoli to protest the recent failure of Parliament to pass a law reducing a “prison year” to nine months.
The law proposal had been voted down earlier in the month during Parliament’s legislative session and was sent back to the committee.
Metn MP Ghassan Moukheiber, who attended the committee’s session, told The Daily Star that the law proposal, forwarded by a number of lawmakers, would allow prisoners convicted of deliberate killing or those serving lifetime sentences or facing capital punishment to seek a reduction in their sentences, “but within certain conditions.”
Western Bekaa MP Robert Ghanem, who chaired the committee’s session at Parliament, outlined to reporters some of these conditions.
“For example, a prisoner serving a lifetime sentence can file a demand for sentence reduction only after serving 18 years of his sentence. The committee examines this demand and then the court [examines it],” Ghanem said.
The MP noted that an additional condition was added to article 549 of the law, specifying that those convicted of deliberate killing cannot file a demand for sentence reduction before the family of the victim drops its lawsuit and the committee listens to their opinion.
Some prisoners would not be subject to the amended law, said Ghanem, “like those who committed crimes against state security or crimes involving public funds, currency forgery and the drug trade.”
The lawmaker added that the draft law facilitates the process of filing demands for sentence reductions by convicted prisoners and that the committee would forward the law proposal to Parliament as requested by Speaker Nabih Berri, adding that it might be debated during a legislative session next week or in the following session.
The National News Agency reported Thursday that 45 inmates at the Qibbeh prison began a hunger strike in protest against the draft law to reduce the length of a “prison year” for all prisoners.
The NNA also reported that a Palestinian inmate, serving a sentence for drug charges in Roumieh prison, was found dead Thursday morning.
A forensic expert said his body showed no bruises or other signs of violence, and that it was likely that he suffered a heart attack in his sleep.
Blood and urine samples were taken for lab tests and the judiciary requested his body be handed over to his family.
Separately, Judge Sami Sader, the deputy government commissioner to the Military Court, charged two officers and nine guards at the Roumieh prison complex with failure to heed instructions, allowing five prisoners to escape last week, and referred them to the military investigative judge.
Four members of Fatah al-Islam and one Al-Qaeda operative escaped over the weekend by posing as civilians.
One man, a Jordanian national, was arrested by security services close to the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon.
Copyright The Daily Star 2011.
