An Amnesty International report examines the period between 2018 and 2022. Deputy director for the Middle East: “A drastic and urgent reform must be carried out, starting with decongesting prisons.” The facilities are at 323% of their capacity and 80% are in pretrial detention awaiting trial.
Beirut () – Ill-treatment, lack of basic medical care and adequate resources, misconduct or negligence by prison staff and overcrowding are some of the causes that led to the (almost) doubling of deaths in prisons between 2018 and 2022. A report by the NGO Amnesty International denounces a dramatic escalation that goes hand in hand with the economic, social and institutional crisis in which the country of cedars has been plunged in recent years, with serious violations of human rights. “The sharp increase in victims – stresses Aya Majzoub, AI’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa – should be an alarm bell for the government” of Lebanon, whose prisons need “urgent and drastic reform”.
One of the priorities listed by the expert is the need to “decongest” prisons, beginning with the use of “alternative measures” to “preventive” prison. To this must be added “additional” resources to ensure that inmates receive “adequate health care and have immediate access to emergency medical care.” “The economic crisis – warns Aya Majzoub – cannot be an excuse for the prison authorities to deny prisoners access to medicines, charge the prisoners’ families with hospitalization costs or delay their transfer to hospitals”. And the judiciary, she continues, must “investigate every death in custody in a timely and impartial manner. Deficiencies and negligence on the part of the authorities must be corrected and also, if necessary, those responsible must be prosecuted”.
Amnesty International’s research shows a relationship between the increase in deaths in Lebanese prisons and the economic crisis, which is at the root of “deficiencies” in “adequate and timely” medical care for prisoners, even in cases where that “urgent treatment” is required. Between September 2022 and April this year, the NGO interviewed 16 people, including former prisoners and relatives of people who died in custody.
The brother of a prisoner reported that he had died in Roumieh, on August 21, 2022, because his health had deteriorated rapidly. Despite his serious condition, the prison pharmacist said that he did not believe in the pain and the prison authorities delayed his transfer to the hospital, even though the family had timely provided all the money necessary to pay for his medical care.
Another painful issue is overcrowding in prisons, which has worsened in recent years in correspondence with the economic crisis. The occupancy of the facilities is 323% higher than the guaranteed maximum capacity, and 80% of the prisoners are in preventive detention awaiting trial. The combination of overcrowding and appalling detention conditions has led to a deterioration in the health of the prison population. At the same time, due to currency devaluation and skyrocketing inflation, resources to guarantee medical care have been drastically reduced. “The budget of the Ministry of the Interior to provide medical care to people in prison fell from US$7.3 million in 2019 to about US$628,000 in 2022. As a result, prisons -concludes the report- are understaffed, and prison pharmacies cannot offer basic medicines such as painkillers and antibiotics”.
