Report: Al-Qandaqli Murdered For Uncovering Prison Break Scheme

Slain Roumieh prison inmate G. al-Qandaqli was killed after he uncovered the detailed scheme of some Fatah al-Islam inmates to escape the prison, the As-Safir daily reported Saturday.

An unnamed well-informed security source told the daily that Fatah al-Islam inmates strangled al-Qandaqli after he uncovered their massive prison break plan which they were about to put into action, before it was thwarted last Monday.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged five members of Fatah al-Islam for al-Qandaqli's murder, and for committing the crime in a way that indicates he took his own life.

But their crime was revealed when a prison informant submitted information backed with documents and pictures showing that al-Qandaqli was beaten to death.

A security source said that some prisoners questioned in the aftermath of the incident made contradicting statements on the crime, pointing out that the two security members charged by Saqr for “negligence of duty” could have kept information for fears over their own life.

Al-Qandaqli, who was serving a life sentence for multiple murder and drug-related offenses, was found dead by hanging in his cell at Roumieh prison on January 18.

A massive escape attempt from Roumieh prison was thwarted on Monday after guards found ropes linking the observation tower to the facility's outer wall. The inmates had lowered four 17-meter ropes from the tower to the outer wall of the building where convicts are incarcerated.

Last month, guards thwarted an attempt by around 20 Fatah al-Islam inmates to escape from Roumieh, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons and that keeps the country's most dangerous inmates where authorities have lost much control.

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

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