A memo to all civilized nations and human rights organizations about the violation of human rights in Lebanese prisons: A call for reform

Dr. Muhamad Mugraby
Beirut
August 30, 2003

1. It is my duty to share with the world the knowledge I acquired during my illegal detention for three weeks in Lebanon from August 8th, 2003, in several detention centers. I have learned that serious and continuous violations of human rights are taking place in prisons. It is one thing to restrict the freedom of residence and movement through detention. But what is undertaken in the Lebanese prisons constitutes an execution of the human dignity of every detainee and a global unjustified injustice.

2. I spent the first period from August 8th to August 14th in one of the holding wards in the basement of the Palace of Justice in Beirut where there is no sunlight or ventilation. The basement is an area of about 50m². There are no bathrooms, just two extremely dirty toilets. During my presence there, detainees were cleaning the floor every day with the detergents my wife brought. Detainees are not allowed to shave or to read newspapers or watch television. Detainees come to the basement and go, and while I was there, the number of detainees in that basement reached twenty-seven persons at one time. Garbage cans are left in the basement overnight and thrown away the next morning. Food is brought to the detainees once a day in a large cooking pot or two, without any dishes or kitchen utensils; detainees eat use rotten bread and their hands to eat. There are no beds, sheets, or pillows, and the detainees are not given clothing, sheets, or towels. They have no potable water. I shared with other detainees the food and the water my wife used to bring me.

3. What is worse is that detainees are thrown in the basement without informing their families or lawyers. They are not permitted to make phone calls to inform their relatives or lawyers. Everyday, I used to give my wife a list of names and telephone numbers of the new detainees who wished to inform their family of their detention.

4. On Thursday August 14th, a despicable practice caught my attention. Three detainees from Tripoli told me that they received arrest warrants. And when I asked them to show the warrants, they said that they don't have them and that they signed the warrant a clerk of the public prosecution of Beirut kept with him. I saw this clerk, who is known to me, speaking to the guards, so I called him and asked him why he did not give the detainees the original copy of the warrant of which they signed the notification. He replied that that's how things are done and that they never give the detainees the original copy of such a warrant. I told him that it was clear violation of the law. Half an hour later, the clerk came back and gave each of the three detainees an official copy of the arrest warrant signed by the public prosecutor on duty. It turned out that the public prosecution considered that they committed a red-handed crime, which gives it the right to arrest them and make them appear before the district judge without passing by the investigating magistrate.

5. That same afternoon, and as a result of the mentioned incident, I was suddenly transferred to the Prison of Roumieh. There I learned that the same practice was in force. Detainees receive all judicial documents such as arrest warrants, summaries of sentences and imprisonment verdicts, without actually receiving any copy of the warrant or decision they signed. Many detainees do not know what their legal status is or which authority took jurisdiction over their case. They are unable to exercise their rights, which they ignore, within the legal time limits that they also ignore.

6. Sometimes a lawyer comes to meet a client detainee. They meet at the door of the ward before other detainees and the guards, who listen carefully to the whole conversation depriving the meeting of the private aspect it should have. As for me, I was exceptionally allowed to meet with my colleagues around a dirty table outside the basement in the presence of one or two guards of which we could not get rid, and that for fifteen minutes no more, strictly enforced by a thuggish warrant officer.

7. At the Prison of Roumieh, my meetings with my colleagues and visitors took place across wire fences in the presence of many people, guards and some detainees who work for them. The same applies to the other detainees and their attorneys and visitors.

8. During the first couple of days of my detention in the Prison of Roumieh, from Thursday August 14th until Saturday the 16th, I shared with twenty other detainees Room No. 7 of the juvenile reform building. Room No. 7 is about 16m² in area and its toilet was out of order. When I made a complaint to a guard about the high number of occupants in Room No. 7, I was told to consider myself lucky because that number often reaches thirty or forty. I was attacked by mosquitoes and other insects which left many marks on my arm. I could not make myself consume any food, and only drank water from the bottles that I brought with me from the basement of the Palace of Justice.

9. On Saturday, August 16th, in the afternoon, I was transferred to the 'Jizzine' ward, thanks to one of the prison supervisors. Jizzine Ward is situated on a higher floor of the same juvenile reform building of Roumieh Prison. Most of the detainees in this building are not juveniles. Half the floor is for the holding of juveniles and another half is for detainees with psychotic disorders. A small, carefully sealed ward holds people with AIDS. The estimated total number of prisoners in the building is around 1200, while that of the entire prison is about 7000. I was reliably advised that the prison's actual rated capacity is only 20% of this total number.

10. The Jizzine ward contained 90 to 100 "lucky" detainees in an area of some 400m². They "enjoy" ventilation, television sets, and rudimentary water-heating devices. Prisoners eat, drink and wear what their relatives bring them. Most of them already knew me and welcomed me warmly.

11. My wife, son, and daughter were visiting me every day. Lawyers from my law firm were visiting me four days a week, and so was my sister who came from California, as well as other colleagues and friends. Some people in prison were unhappy with the frequency and numbers of my visitors and began to harass them and harass me during the visits. On Wednesday August 28th, some guards intervened to prohibit my daughter from showing me a page of An-Nahar newspaper dedicated to my case and confiscated the paper.

12. Later that same day I was transferred to 'Department B' of the building for provisional detainees where I was admitted to room No. 241. This room had an area of 18m²; it contained some beds, and seven detainees (most of them knew me). It also had a television set, and a bathroom equipped with a shower, a toilet, and a washbasin. I was told that it was one of three such rooms in the whole block.

13. There are three categories of people incarcerated in the Prison of Roumieh:

a) Those that have been convicted and are serving their time
b) Those who are legally or illegally detained
c) Those who are being held hostages or in quasi enslavement

14. The category of hostages or quasi-slaves includes hundreds of foreigners of Asian nationalities, mostly sentenced to no more than one month. Yet they frequently end up serving indefinitely without release. An unknown number of Lebanese also fall into this category. These people, whose conditions constitute a pure violation of human rights, are imprisoned indefinitely for trivial reasons such as:

a) Non-payment of fines: Although many prisoners have money deposited in the prison's safe, they cannot withdraw it except through a relative or a lawyer with written authorization to make the withdrawal on their behalf which is usually impossible for the foreign detainees.
b) Insufficient funds: Foreign prisoners cannot afford paying the government fees and taxes due for their residence and work permits, as well as the cost of the airline ticket to send them back home upon their release for deportation.
c) Unknown reasons.

15. Most of the hostages have families waiting for them in their home countries for which they had been the sole providers. These families are left without support. I will discuss two such cases:

a) The case of Barakatallah Jamaleddine, a 32-year-old Indian tailor from Madras, who is married with two daughters: a six-year-old and an eight-year-old. His family lives in India. Mr. Jamaleddine came to Lebanon to work for Sukleen, and earned $150 a month, which is below the minimum wage. (Apparently Sukleen employs hundreds of Indian and Asian workers). Mr. Jamaleddine worked for Sukleen for four months, and then resigned. Sukleen withheld his papers, and required $1500 in return. Mr. Jamaleddine owes $3600 to the General Security and the Ministry of Labor for the last four years' residence and work permit fees. He received a fifteen-day prison sentence, but has been in prison for over a year.
b) The case of Niranja Comodo Sinh Amara, a 31-year-old Sri Lankan national. His wife, Dibkani Milnet, lives in Lebanon with their 4 year-old son, Sopon Fimel. Mr. Amara, whose residence permit has expired while in detention, has been in jail for one year, one month, and sixteen days (as of the 29th of August). He believes that the military court sentenced him to one month in prison after he had given a security agent $2000 under threat. His employer's lawyer filed a complaint on his behalf, but the verdict was returned on the accused instead of the plaintiff. After my release, I called the employer and his lawyer and they advised me that the case is still pending, that Mr. Amara's release was ordered but that they were still unable to get the release order carried out!

16. A large number of those hostages are used as a work force for the prison's administration as well as for some influential detainees.

17. They share with the other prisoners at Roumieh the status of lack of human dignity. They often hear their co-detainees scream as they are beaten during the night.

18. Many, if not most, of the detainees arrived at Roumieh after having been badly tortured in classic ways, such as suspension by a pulley, chicken rotisserie, electric shocks, and violent beatings. One detainee had his hand broken and then splinted. The splint was broken before the prisoner was admitted to the basement ward at the Palace of Justice and then to Roumieh and where the prisoner was tortured once again.

19. Medical care is limited. When medication is prescribed by the prison doctor, the patient receives it two days later and is given the medication pill by pill. Water and air-borne diseases abound, including tuberculosis and scabies, which are common occurrences at Roumieh Prison. It is not uncommon for a prisoner to perish due to unknown causes. Water is not clean and insects roam freely.

20. As for me: I made several requests to consult with the two medical specialists who regularly treated me prior to my detention, on my expense. The public prosecutor rejected every request. Usually, prisoners are allowed such consultations provided that they pay the costs thereof.

21. Roumieh's prisoners are overwhelmed with feelings of injustice and oppression. They have all lost faith in judges, lawyers, and the regime. I heard many stories of fortunes lost at the hands of exploitative lawyers. Some of the most unfortunate cases are those of Lebanese detainees convicted of drug related crimes. Most of them confess using small quantities (around twenty grams) of Hashish. They are then convicted by the courts for drug trafficking. In order to commute the harsh mandatory life sentence provided by the law for drug trafficking, they are sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison. For drug use, the law mandates no more than two months to two years in prison. Unfortunately, however, the distinction between drug use and drug trafficking is rarely ever made.

22. One such detainee, in his early twenties, was regularly using drugs with his girlfriend of about the same age, who incidentally, was the daughter of a sitting judge. The couple picked up the habit from the girl's brother. The girl was released and is being tried in absentia after being prosecuted for drug use, while the young man was prosecuted and detained for drug trafficking. The judge's son was not prosecuted due to his father's position.

23. Most detainees, convicts, and hostages share a common experience. Upon their first arrest, they are subjected to rigorous interrogation by policemen, public security forces, or secret services. This questioning is often accompanied by humiliation and torture. When the minutes of the interrogation are recorded in writing, the prisoners are generally forced to sign without reading the minutes or acquiring sufficient knowledge of its contents. Such minutes are routinely admitted by judges as evidence and are relied upon for conviction. If the subjects try to deny, they are either ignored or threatened and forced to retract their retraction.

24. Thus it is fair to say that a detainee is convicted while he is in the hands of the security forces. The conviction is guaranteed by the minutes of the interrogation, which are upheld over 90% of the time. The real role of the judge is to determine the sentence.

25. The new criminal procedure code has placed restrictions on the ability of the security forces and the public prosecutors to keep somebody in provisional custody, as well as on the term of arrest warrants; two months for minor crimes punishable by no more than three years in prison, and six months for more severe crimes. These provisions are often totally ignored.

26. With some exceptions, each detainee, other than the lucky few, is allotted an average of one square meter of ward space. Several detainees have to sleep sitting up, on their knees, or on their side without even being able to stretch their legs on the old infested sponge mats, a position they liken to a sword (tasyeef). They are allowed to go out to the prison's backyard for an hour or two every two days. Some lucky detainees are issued special cards allowing them to wander about. Those who wish to visit with convicts are allowed to do so three times a week without prior permission. Those who wish to visit detainees in provisional custody, such as myself, must acquire written permission from the public prosecutor beforehand. (Some clerks sell pre-signed written permission slips for $20 per pack of ten, with the name and date fields on the slips left blank). Layers of chain wire fencing, or a reinforced glass wall, separate the detainees from their visitors. Detainees are forbidden from touching their wives and children, yet they are permitted to quickly kiss their toddlers (till the age of five) through the small window-like opening that is used to bring in food and other delivered items.

27. Food brought to the detainees by their relatives is carefully searched. It is often turned back for reasons of suspicion and the relatives destroy it because of the spoiling that results from the hand search. A detainee often leaves behind a family that he used to provide for without any source of support. Yet the roles are reversed. The family is now forced to support the detainee. The costs of such support often amount to one thousand dollars per month, which creates undue social, economic, and personal hardship as a result of the state's failure to fulfill its simplest wardship duties towards the detainees.

28. A category of detainees referred to as "servants" is in charge of most of the prison work. Asian "servants" provide janitorial services while Lebanese "servants" carry out administrative tasks such as control, inspection, filing, keeping registers, and all maintenance. None of the work is rewarded.

29. Many detainees also do unrewarded work in small factories and workshops. One of them is an automobile mechanic. The main customers are police and possibly army officers, whose cars are serviced for free with the raw materials and accessories provided by the "customers" at their own expense.

30. This prison at Roumieh is the central prison of Lebanon. There are dozens of other detention centers and many smaller prisons. It violates all applicable standards recognized by civilized nations and the human rights of the detainees. I firmly believe that all detainees should be sent home until another prison is built in each district, that satisfies international standards, under the supervision of an international committee. Thereafter, only dangerous convicts shall be admitted to the new prisons in accordance with the rated capacity thereof and under the control of an international committee.

31. Radical reforms must be introduced to the procedures relative to prosecution, arrest, sentencing and service of terms. The following are among the most necessary of such reforms:

a) The penal code provides the minimum and maximum duration of each sentence. Sentences should likewise be determined. When a convict demonstrates good behavior, he should be released after serving the minimum term of imprisonment. Otherwise, the sentence must be commuted according to his behavior and to the rated number of the prison's population that should not be exceeded.
b) Police interrogations and investigations by the investigation magistrate should not be given evidentiary value in trials except for forensic evidence. No confession should be used as evidence unless given after consulting a lawyer and in his presence. The confessor is entitled to retract his confession before the trial.
c) Detainees must have the right to use the phone in order to inform their relatives, friends, or lawyers about the time and place of detention. They should also be permitted to use the telephone every day for personal or business needs.
d) No interrogations should be permitted except in the presence of the suspect's lawyer who shall have the right to advise his client to keep silent. The suspect is entitled to keep silent.
e) Torture should be banned and torturers subject to severe penalty.
f) Military courts shall have no jurisdiction over civilians regardless of the subject crime.
g) Civilians should be entitled to prosecute soldiers and security forces before regular courts.
h) Arrest warrants must be issued for a limited period according to a reasoned decision of the judge.
i) The defendant and his attorney must have the right to examine the complaint as well as all the attached documents and to receive copies of the transcript of all testimonies given before the investigating magistrate as soon as they are completed.
j) The suspect or the defendant should have the right to retain and to meet as many lawyers, at any time they wish, in a separate room equipped with a table and chairs without any control or eavesdropping.
k) No official papers may be given to detainees without actually delivering to them the original copies thereof. No delays shall run as a result of such service except from the day following the delivery by the detainee of such papers to his lawyer.
l) Upon admission to a prison or place of detention, a detainee must be given a written report showing the reason for his detention, the authority who made the arrest or detention decision, the source of its legal authority to make such order, the judicial authority with jurisdiction over his case, as well as a summary of his fundamental legal rights, especially the right to a lawyer and to contest the detention procedures.
m) The structure of crimes and sentences must be reconsidered. For example issuing bad checks should no longer be a crime, as such a crime no longer exists in most countries. In fact if it remains on the books, this crime is largely used by usurers against small businessmen who go to jail until the usurer recovers his debt with interest. It is the usurers who should be prosecuted instead.
n) In general, the presumption of innocence must be fully respected and the rules of procedure, particularly as to ensuring the rights of defense, must be strictly complied with.