Charbel: Islamist Prisoners to Receive Same Treatment as Other Inmates
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Sunday that Islamist prisoners will receive the same treatment as other inmates after several scandals rocked Roumieh prison.
“From now on they will receive the same treatment,” Charbel told An Nahar daily when asked why the Islamists were receiving special treatment.
While stressing that all prisoners have mobile phones, he vowed to discuss with the telecommunications ministry ways to provide them a landline phone center like the rest of prisons worldwide.
He lamented that TVs and magazines were previously banned but now inmates are allowed to get them.
Asked that mobile phones are reportedly used by inmates to plan robberies and kidnappings from inside the prison, Charbel said: “We listen to them, they are under surveillance.”
The minister denied that the ability of the prisoners to get mobile phones was the result of an inadequacy by prison guards to search the visitors.
“I have files that prove that the general prosecutor used to allow in the past certain inmates to make phone calls, in particular if they were businessmen,” he told An Nahar.
Several Islamist prisoners have escaped from Roumieh and many prison break plots have been thwarted by guards.
The latest scandal was the death of Palestinian inmate Ghassan al-Qandaqli, who was found hanging in his cell at the prison’s Bloc B on January 18.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Friday eight Islamist inmates with murder. Media reports said it took two days of negotiations with them to allow police to question them over the alleged murder.
But the Internal Security Forces general-directorate said in a communique on Saturday that prisoners did not dictate their decisions.
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