Roumieh Prison Escapee Captured in Zahle

Security forces on Tuesday managed to arrest an inmate who had escaped Monday from the Roumieh prison, where he was spending a jail term over several crimes, including identity fraud.

“Following a surveillance operation, the Judicial Police's regional anti-drug bureau in the Bekaa managed to arrest Lebanese prison escapee Abdullah Ahmed al-Hshimi, 30, on the al-Karak-Zahle public road at 5:30 p.m., after he escaped on Monday from the convicts' building of the central Roumieh prison,” the Internal Security Forces said in a statement.

“Investigations are ongoing under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities,” the ISF added.

The ISF's public relations department had circulated a picture of the escapee, noting that “he was jailed over several crimes, including the impersonation of Faisal Mohammed Matar.”

Hshimi escaped from Roumieh only a few hours after a visit by caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel to the facility on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, Charbel inspected Roumieh prison's courtroom, which he said was ready to start the trial of inmates.

The caretaker minister lamented that the government had paid millions to rehabilitate the prison and that no major change was made.

Last week, Charbel said that the “crisis in Lebanon's central prison is chronic.”

The caretaker minister pointed out that there are no doors inside the prison, saying: “We have been demanding for the last two years for the installation of modern doors and gates but no response was given.”

Roumieh, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, has witnessed sporadic prison breaks and escalating riots in recent years as inmates living in poor conditions demand better treatment.

In January, a major escape attempt from Roumieh prison was thwarted after guards found ropes linking the observation tower to the facility's outer wall.

Around a month later, authorities foiled a plot by inmates to escape through a tunnel they were digging.

In October 2012, a scandal erupted after it was reported that three Fatah al-Islam prisoners had escaped from the jail the month before.

In another major prison break from Roumieh, five inmates from the terror network managed to escape in August 2011.