Tripoli residents welcome released Islamists, re erect protest tent ...

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Tripoli’s residents welcomed the 8 Islamist detainees released from Roumieh prison on Tuesday at a time when they re-erected the protest tent on the sidewalk facing al-Nour Square in protest of the failure to release all of the Islamist detainees.

A celebration was held in the residence of a member of the Islamist detainees’ committee, Sheikh Salem al-Rafei in Tripoli. Rafei stressed that the Islamists’ release was not a political act, but their right, adding “I regret that not all of the detainees were set free”.

8 Lebanese Islamist detainees related to the case of Fatah al-Islam were released from Roumieh prison earlier today while another two Islamist detainees, Mohammad Wehbi and Jihad al-Kadi were handed over to the General Directorate of General Security for being Palestinian nationals, with a third Syrian Islamist detainee to also be handed over to authorities.

Islamist detainee Mohammad al-Khaled told LBCI that the Lebanese state had nothing to do with his release, adding “I turned myself in because I believe in justice and on the grounds that they only wanted to interrogate me”. Khaled said that he spent 5 years and a half in jail.

The office of Premiere Najib Mikati and Sheikh Nabil Rahim earlier told LBCI that the Lebanese Military Court removed the pre-convictions from the Islamists’ files.

A 500,000 LBP bail for each prisoner was paid by PM Najib Mikati to ensure their release.

The remaining detainees from Nahr al-Bared amount to 100, including 15 Lebanese, two Yemenis, 3 Saudis, one Russian national and one Turkish national; the rest are Palestinians and Syrians. A second batch of around 30 prisoners is expected to be released in the next two months.

The Islamist detainees’ committee congratulated the detainees who have been released from Roumieh prison. The government called for deploying more efforts to do justice to all of the detainees through accelerating trials, radically addressing the situation in prisons and dealing with the issue of Islamist detainees as an inclusive file devoid of political and sectarian calculations.

The committee promised all detainees and prisoners to continue their movement at all levels until officials meet their promises to implement the pre-conditioned general amnesty and improve the health and social conditions in Lebanese prisons.